Answer: B. Outline topics to be discussed
Answer: The essential message of a text using fewer than 20 words
While traveling through the Second Ring, Dante and Virgil come across a place with many dark trees, but no actual people. They can hear voices screaming in pain, but they can't see them. Virgil tells Dante to break off a twig from one of the trees, after which the tree cries in pain and starts bleeding. Virgil then explains that all of these trees are souls of people who've hurt themselves during life, those who have willingly discarded their own bodies and committed suicide. Thus whenever the tree is hurt (a branch broken off), they feel pain as if they were dismembered.
It is important to be consistent: unless you have reasons not to, you should stick only to one tense.
If you're telling a story, be consistent about whether you say it in the present tense or the past tense.