Choice A is the best answer. The figure shows that the greatest cooling period of the Little Ice Age occurred between 1500 and 1700 CE; it also shows that the greatest warming period of the Medieval Warm Period occurred between 1150 and 1250 CE. Therefore, the Little Ice Age's greatest cooling occurred a couple of centuries, or "hundreds of years," after the tem-perature peaks of the Medieval Warm Period.
Choices B, C, and D are incorrect because the figure does not focus on equatorial volcanic eruptions, pyroclastic flows, or radiocarbon analysis.