AP physics 1 rotation problem could someone help me with this problem? 

the correct answers are a and d. one issue i have with it is that i just don't understand what the problem is asking. like what spool? what table? i tried making some sense of the question and the answers, but i can only see d moving the wheel clockwise. the answer explanation mentions,

The key is knowing where the “fulcrum,” or the pivot for rotation, is. Here, that’s the contact point between the surface and the wheel.

but why is that? isn't the pivot where the axle meets the wheel?
 A: The question is worded poorly and the diagram is not very helpful, the setup looks like this:

[Source]
Now imagine wrapping a rope around the axle like this: 

[Source]
Now imagine those arrow represent pulling the free end of the rope. Hopefully your intuition can get you the rest of the way there.
Edit:
The second image shows how the rope pulls on the axle, but can be misleading, because in this problem the rotation axis is not the axle. At the instant that a force is applied, the pivot point will be the point where the wheels touch the ground. The "lever arm" is the line extending from the pivot point to the point at which the force is applied. If we draw this line for each of the cases then we see that the force will in general either be along the line (no torque), to the left of the line (counterclockwise torque) or to the right of the line (clockwise torque). (a) and (d) both have a clockwise torque, and thus we would expect them to begin rolling to the right, so long as the angle between the force vector and the lever arm is maintained. (b) has a counterclockwise torque while (c) has no torque, the force is directed along the lever arm. 
The confusion of this question is if you mistake the second image I posted as being the setup. In that case, the rotation axis is the axle, and then the lever arm would be different and we would get a different answer. The key is to recognize that the pivot point/rotation axis is where the wheel touches the ground.

A: This question is written very poorly. I would recommend using a different source for questions unless this is one that your teacher is making you do.
I think that by "to the right" it means clockwise, although in physics we call clockwise rotation either "clockwise" or "negative", we don't use linear direction for rotations, and I think that it is assuming a spool of rope is wrapped around the axle, and the wheels are on a table. It is asking which direction you would need to pull the rope in order for the wheels to rotate clockwise. D makes sense because you are pulling the rope from the left side which would spin it to the right. A would work if you pulled it and then released it would start rotating to the right, but it doesn't make a lot of sense because just pulling it wouldn't cause a clockwise rotation unless you pulled it then released it at a high speed.
A: Not a very clearly worded question!  The spool consists of the two wheels and the axle, as shown, and these are rigidly connected. Whoever wrote this will have assumed their readers were familiar with the spool that a camera film came on - not so common today! It is assumed to be resting on a table, which isn't shown. Draw the table underneath the circle of the wheel, and think about the forces of gravity, reaction and friction. As the wheel rotates it must move across the table, without slipping.
But it's really quite pretty once it's got going. Yes, B and C obviously make the spool (axle and wheels together) roll anticlockwise and move left, and D will send it right. A is more subtle, as it looks as if it wants to roll left but the force is pulling it to the right. Which it will do, winding up the rope as you pull on it. 
There's a great chance out there for somebody with a spool, a piece of string, and a video camera. 
A: A, B and C produce a counter-clockwise torque. You can see how that will pevent the body from accelerating to the right with no slipping.
The only choice is D that gives the proper torque sense in this case. It is also the only one different from the other three and there has to be the correct answer by the principal that answers have a unique solution.
