Which evidence from "The Lady, or the Tiger” best supports the conclusion that the princess’s choice will reflect the moral of the story: that she should put another’s happiness before herself?

a) Possessed of more power, influence, and force of character than any one who had ever before been interested in such a case, she had done what no other person had done. . . .
b) Would it not be better for him to die at once, and go to wait for her in the blessed regions of semi-barbaric futurity?
c) How her soul had burned in agony when she had seen him rush to meet that woman, with her flushing cheek and sparkling eye of triumph. . . .
d) How in her grievous reveries had she gnashed her teeth, and torn her hair, when she saw his start of rapturous delight as he opened the door of the lady!

a) Possessed of more power, influence, and force of character than any one who had ever before been interested in such a case, she had done what no other person had done. . . .

Explanation:

The short story The Lady, or the Tiger by Frank Stockton revolves around the story of how a barbaric king took upon himself to deliver justice to anyone going against his words. His judgment was to have two doors for the accused to chose from, with one door leading to a beautiful lady whom he will marry that instant while the other door contains a ferocious tiger who will kill him instantly.

In the story, the princess's lover was made to chose between the two doors. Which door the young man decided on, we are not told. But based on the conclusion of the story that if the princess chose to put another's happiness before herself, then that theme will be best reflected by the lines "possessed of more power, influence, and force of character than anyone who had ever before been interested in such a case, she had done what no other person had done..." This shows how the princess, using her power of being a princess which no one else has, did what no other people could do or are in a position to do.  

Thus, the correct answer is option a).

answer: the sentence in the text that contains both the topic and the author's single most important idea about the topic

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