Answer: The three questions propel the action of the story. The king goes out in search of their answers.
Explanation:
The correct answer is the second option - <span>to occur unexpectedly and have destructive or harmful effects.
</span>Here, the word struck is just a past form of the verb to strike, meaning to happen unexpectedly and have dire consequences, like an earthquake can hit California, in this case. The final definition is a noun, and does not fit in the context of the original sentence.