Earl sought/ seeked shelter after lightning striked/struck the ground just a few feet away

Earl sought shelter after lightning struck the ground just a few feet away.

Explanation:

If we consider the given sentence carefully, we can see or understand that the sentence talks about an event that is in the past. So, the verbs in the sentence will also be in the past forms.

The verbs in the sentence are "seek" and "strike". And the past tense and past participle forms of these two are "seek"- sought and "strike" is struck.

So, considering the sentence is in the past tense, the correct spelling and form of the past tense of the verbs will be "sought" and "struck".

Thus, the correct sentence will be-

Earl sought shelter after lightning struck the ground just a few feet away.

it creates a visual picture of the man.

it conveys what the scene sounds like.

it describes the actions of the boy.

it reveals the poet’s opinion of the characters.

it encourages readers to care for the characters.