Pauses are represented in the story with

A pause is represented in a story as ellipsis points (. . .) or a dash (—).

Explanation:

In phonetics, a pause is a moment of silence or a break in speaking.

A pause in phonetic analysis, represented by a double vertical bar (||) and this is used to represent a distinct pause.

Whereas In direct speech ( that is in both fiction and nonfiction), a pause is conventionally indicated with ellipsis points (. . .) or a dash (—).

A pause is used to fill in a space and to avoid using "uhm" "ah" rather a pause gives you room to think and plan the next thing you want to say. But note that in conversations, especially between two people that are not so close, long pauses should be avoided.

the answer is: b: however, that doesn’t mean that the current drought isn’t real.