Which sentence uses the denotative meaning of the word bear?
a i am a bear if i don’t get at least eight hours of sleep at night.
b my friends warned me that the science test was a real bear.
c that woman is a bear when it comes to protecting her children.
d the bear lumbered across the mountain in search of food.

It would be D :-)

The word Denotative  means literally

D) The bear lumbered across the mountain in search of food.

Explanation: the denotation of a word is its literal meaning, the definition that we can find in a dictionary, a word can have several denotations (or definitions). The denotation (or literal meaning) of the word bear is a large, heavy mammal that walks on the soles of its feet, having thick fur and a very short tail. From the given options, the sentence that uses the denotative meaning of "bear" is the corresponding to option D.

the anwser is c i just took the test