All learninguseful. Is it is or are in the blank?

"now they have beaten me, he thought. i am too old to club sharks to death. but i will try it as long as i have the oars and the short club and the tiller."? this passage shows santiago's belief that a. he will never fish again. b. he is too old to continue fishing. c. man can be defeated but not destroyed. d. the sharks got the best of him.

After taking notes carefully and studying freqently, derek not only passed the test, select the word group below that best completes the sentence in parallel structure. and he got 100% but he scores well on classwork but he also scored the highest in the class and he was also scoring the best he ever had

Which statement describes how connotationis used in this passage