The far side of the hills around the bowl of the base was glimmering, but you could never see the source of the light, and it had the look of a city at night approached from a great distance. flares were dropping everywhere around the fringes of the perimeter, laying a dead white light on the high ground rising from the piedmont. there would be dozens of them at once sometimes, trailing an intense smoke, dropping white-hot sparks, and it seemed as though anything caught in their range would be made still, like figures in a game of living statues. there would be the muted rush of illumination rounds, fired from 60-mm. mortars inside the wire, dropping magnesium-brilliant above the nva trenches.

the sensory details in the excerpt evoke a sense of
a. awe and wonder.
b. confusion and disgust.
c. hope and strength.
d. surprise and excitement.