In one of his speeches, otto von bismarck said:
not through speeches..are the great questions but (instead) by iron and blood?
what does he mean by this?

Otto Von Bismarck is remembered as the Iron Chancellor. He was an outstanding diplomat who did much for the unification and economy of the German nation. But while he did favor diplomacy he also resorted to war on some occasions to unite the Germans and to expand the country's borders. So the first half of the sentence refers to diplomacy, and the other half refers to war since iron is for weapons and blood is for lives that are lost for new territory.

when in doubt choose c

it's what my teacher told my class when we were going into psats

i believe that d is the right answer