The following text is from Herman Melville’s 1854 novel The Lightning-rod Man.
The stranger still stood in the exact middle of the cottage, where he had ﬁrst planted himself. His singularity impelled a
closer scrutiny. A lean, gloomy ﬁgure. Hair dark and lank, mattedly streaked over his brow. His sunken pitfalls of eyes were
ringed by indigo halos, and played with an innocuous sort of lightning: the gleam without the bolt. The whole man was
dripping. He stood in a puddle on the bare oak ﬂoor: his strange walking-stick vertically resting at his side.
It elaborates on the previous sentence’s description of the character.
It introduces the setting that is described in the sentences that follow.
It establishes a contrast with the description in the previous sentence.
It sets up the character description presented in the sentences that follow.
Choice D is the best answer. This best states the function of the underlined sentence. The sentence basically says: “He
stood out, so I looked more closely at him.” Then the rest of the text describes him in detail.  
Choice A is incorrect. This doesn’t state the function of the underlined sentence. The previous sentence basically says: “He
was still standing in the middle of the cottage”—it doesn’t include any description of the character himself.  Choice B is
incorrect. This doesn’t state the function of the underlined sentence. The following sentences describe the character, not the
setting. Choice C is incorrect. This doesn’t state the function of the underlined sentence. The underlined sentence basically
says: “He stood out, so I looked more closely at him.” The previous sentence basically says: “He was still standing in the
middle of the cottage.” There’s no contrast between these two sentences.