Answer:
Earl sought shelter after lightning struck the ground just a few feet away.
Step-by-step 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.