Complete the sentence given below with the help of the options that follow.…

Concept

English uses a fixed adverbial phrase to describe the state a person is in while doing something. To say someone performs an action while suffering, the standard collocation is the preposition "in" + a state noun: "in pain", "in distress", "in tears". The phrase "in pain" works like an adverb of state, attaching to the action verb to show the condition of the doer.

Application

• The verb here is "was writing"; the blank needs a phrase that says what state he was in while writing.

• "in pain" is the established collocation for "while suffering", so "he was writing in pain" reads naturally — the writing happened while he was suffering.

• Parallel everyday usage confirms the pattern: "writhing in pain", "crying in pain", "groaning in pain" — the state of suffering is expressed with "in".

Contrast

• "from" marks a source or cause ("he suffered from pain"), not the state accompanying an ongoing action, so "writing from pain" does not fit.

• "by" marks an agent or means ("the letter was written by him"); it cannot express the doer's physical state, so "writing by pain" is not English.

• "with" can mark manner with a few abstract nouns ("with difficulty", "with care"), but "with pain" is not the idiomatic way to say "while suffering"; native usage fixes that sense on "in pain".

Result: the sentence is completed by "in" — "he was writing in pain."