Read the excerpt from Act I of Hamlet.Hamlet: The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold. Horatio: It is a nipping and an eager air.

“Nipping” and “eager” describe air that feels sharp and biting, matching Hamlet’s statement that it is very cold. The best choice is “The air is painfully freezing.” The excerpt does not say the air is colder than ever; it only describes how painfully cold it feels now.

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