In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the alternative which will improve the bracketed part of the sentence. In case no improvement is needed, select "no improvement".
He had had a short illness, there (had been) a brief time of acute suffering, then all was over.
Two pipes can fill a cistern in 28 and 21 hours respectively and an another pipe can empty 30 gallons of water per hour. All the three pipes working together can fill the empty cistern in 84 hours. What is the capacity (in gallons) of the cistern?