What is the value in learning the historical context, biography, and analysis of writers’ works in a classroom setting?

It can help to add context for the work. For example, if the writer was from Victorian England, their etiquette might be very different to what the reader knows. So a scene in which a characters is being very rude might not come off as important to a reader unless they knew it was rude in the author's perspective when writing possibly. It also adds context to what the writer may write about and how they write it. For example if the author's background was heavily conservative, that might explain why certain characters are portrayed certain ways, like homosexuals being the villains often rather than a hero or friend of the hero or something.

most likely the answer would be a.) cupidity

definitions:

cupidity - greed for money or possessions

hydrophobia - extreme or irrational fear of water, especially as a symptom of rabies in humans

pathology - the science of the causes and effects of diseases, especially the branch of medicine that deals with the laboratory examination of samples of body tissue for diagnostic or forensic

patho -   relating to disease

the pronoun reference replaces a noun, but you have to make sure there's no room for confusion.

in the first sentence "her" could be referring to shely or to the sister. the answer there is "shelly called her sister and told her about the new baby."

in the second sentence "it" could be referring to the roof or the floor. the answer there is "since the roof leaks on the family room floor, we need to repair the roof."