Read the passage from "Doe Season.” She listened to the crunch of their boots, their breathing, and the drumming of a distant woodpecker. And the crackling. In winter the woods crackled as if everything were straining, ready to snap like dried chicken bones.

We are hunting, Andy thought. The cold air burned her nostrils. They stopped to make lunch by a rock outcropping that protected them from the wind. Her father heated the bean soup her mother had made for them, and they ate it with bread already stiff from the cold.

What information in this text best provides an example of figurative language?

a. the author's description of bread already stiffened from the cold
b. the author’s comparison of tree branches to chicken bones
c. the author’s description of a woodpecker drumming in the distance
d. the author’s comparison of the sounds of crunching to breathing