It took tom only ten minutes ____ in working out that difficult math problem.

问题描述:

It took tom only ten minutes ____ in working out that difficult math problem.
A to succes B to succeed C succeeding D successing

B
首先是 It take somebody sometime to do sth的句型排除了CD.
答案中必须有to
AB的区别在于success是名词,而succeed是动词,
句型中的 to do要求to 后面接动词,因此选B
succeed in doing something也是一个短语.