What topic is ivan ilyich thinking about in this excerpt from leo tolstoy’s the death of ivan ilyich?

but suddenly in the midst of those proceedings the pain in his side, regardless of the stage the proceedings had reached, would begin its own gnawing work. ivan ilyich would turn his attention to it and try to drive the thought of it away, but without success. it would come and stand before him and look at him, and he would be petrified and the light would die out of his eyes, and he would again begin asking himself whether it alone was true.

a) the pain in his appendix
b) his approaching death
c) his past life
d) his profession

what are the words supposed to be listed?

1.   in sonnet 18, the speaker wants to describe the beauty of his love, but can’t find the words to do so. the speaker says “then in mid-utterance the lay was lost” when he tries to think of the words to describe his love’s beauty.   through his defeat of finding words to describe his love, he shows his love for her.

2.   instead of describing how perfect his love is or comparing her to other beautiful things, he says she is average and there is nothing special about her.   at the last 2 lines of the poem, the volta changes the poem by saying that even though his love is average in beauty, his love for her is special and unique. so instead of praising her throughout the whole poem, he contrasts her average characteristics with his special love for her.

3.   the beloved asked the speaker to describe how he feels about her. she begins to describe what she feels but "drop the torch" and says that she can't do it because the words "hid in me out of reach." the the speaker says "nay, let the silence of my womanhood command my woman-love to thy belief" and that her silence will have to be the answer to his question.