Behind through the soft air the blue haze-cradled mountains spread away. in this line, haze-cradled means. a.drenched by rain. b.gilded in color. c.supported by cold. d.surrounded by mist.

I would contend that the right answer is the D) Surrounded by mist.

Explanation: Just to elaborate a little on the answer, it can be added that in this excerpt from his poem "A Summer Night," the 19th-century British poet Matthew Arnold is describing a thought or a memory "of a past night" spent in the countryside outdoors. Behind some houses, "through the soft air," he remembers having seen the "blue haze-cradled mountains spread away." If the mountains were symbolically cradled, they were embraced, held, or surrounded by haze, which is a phenomenon very similar to mist—haze is the suspension of minuscule dry particles in the air, and mist is the suspension of water droplets.