Do some reasearch if you do not know what to do, and from that do your best.
Answer:
D. acknowledge the potentially embarrassing circumstances under which she is delivering her speech
Explanation:
Most of the students at Wellesley College did not want Barbara Bush to speak because they believed that she was only famous because of her husband (president at the time). A majority of the students wanted Alice Walker to give a speech instead, however this did not occur. Bush is trying to use comedic relief in this line to lighten the mood surrounding her speech.
White, tree and flower are a noun. Dogwood would be the predicate adjective.
I believe that your answer is the first option due to how late the crying is, and unlike in "The Tell-Tale Heart" where the heart is constant and represents the slow descent of madness, the cry of the cat only appears at the end.
The portion of the story where it shows the speaker's madness is actually his looking for and finding similarities in the second cat and wishing to kill it.
Hope this was helpful.