Areader needs to understand how words are being used in a text to the meanings.
a.) imagine
b.) contrast
c.) draw
d.) analyse

the answer would be d. he tells the story through a teenage narrator.

are you kidding? from that description of two mansions, you can't figure out which one is bleak and desolate? maybe you should consider looking those words up in a dictionary, if you don't know what they mean already.