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The Lady, or the Tiger? is one of the most memorable short stories by the American writer Frank R. Stockton. First published in 1882, the story combines romance, suspense, irony, and psychological conflict in a way that continues to challenge readers more than a century later.
Frank R. Stockton was an American writer best known for his imaginative and often humorous stories. He became particularly famous for creating unusual situations in which characters must make difficult choices. His writing often explores human nature, especially the conflict between emotion, reason, love, jealousy, and pride.
The Lady, or the Tiger? takes place in a kingdom ruled by a powerful and unpredictable king. The king has created a strange system of justice in which accused people must choose between two identical doors. Behind one door waits a fierce tiger; behind the other stands a beautiful woman whom the accused will immediately be required to marry. Without knowing what lies behind the doors, the accused must choose one and accept whatever fate awaits him.
The central story begins when the king discovers that a young man has fallen in love with his daughter, the princess. Furious that someone of lower social position has dared to love his daughter, the king sends the young man to the arena. On the day of the trial, however, the princess has secretly discovered what lies behind both doors. When her lover looks toward her for guidance, she must make an impossible decision.
Should she save the man she loves, knowing that he may then be forced to marry another woman? Or will her jealousy overcome her love?
This C1-level adaptation has been carefully rewritten for advanced English learners. The original plot, characters, emotional conflict, suspense, and famous ambiguous ending have been preserved, while the language has been adapted into clear, contemporary English suitable for serious C1 learners.
The story is particularly useful for developing advanced reading skills because it combines literary language with complex ideas about human emotions and decision-making. While reading, learners can encounter sophisticated vocabulary, varied sentence structures, complex grammatical patterns, and natural expressions that are useful beyond the story itself.
More importantly, the story encourages readers to think critically. Its ending does not provide a simple answer. Instead, it leaves the final decision to the reader and raises difficult questions about love, jealousy, sacrifice, possession, and human nature.
As you read, pay close attention not only to what happens, but also to what the characters feel, what they hide, and why they make their choices.
The final question is yours to answer:
Did the lady come out of the door, or did the tiger?
This story, “The Lady, or the Tiger?”, has been carefully adapted and rewritten by LearnEnglish-new.com for advanced English learners. The original work by Frank R. Stockton is in the public domain. This learner-friendly adaptation uses clear, modern English while preserving the main characters, events, psychological depth, suspense, and central themes of the original story. It is designed to help C1 learners develop their reading comprehension, vocabulary, and understanding of literary English. Enjoy reading and improve your English skills!
The Lady, or the Tiger?
By Frank R. Stockton
Contents
Chapter One: The King and His Arena
Chapter Two: The Royal Daughter
Chapter Three: A Forbidden Love
Chapter Four: The Day of Judgment
Chapter Five: The Secret Behind the Doors
Chapter Seven: The Lady or the Tiger?
Chapter One
The King and His Arena
Long ago, in a kingdom whose name has been forgotten, there lived a king whose character was divided between refinement and barbarism. He had borrowed certain ideas of civilization from more advanced neighboring kingdoms, but beneath them remained a powerful and instinctive love of violence, spectacle, and absolute authority.
The king possessed an extraordinary imagination. Whatever entered his mind could become reality if he had enough power to command it. He was accustomed to making decisions according to his own wishes, and because no one dared resist him, his private ideas frequently became public laws.
When everything in his kingdom proceeded exactly as he expected, the king was pleasant and generous. But whenever something went wrong, he became even more cheerful. Nothing delighted him more than correcting what he considered an irregularity, especially when the correction involved punishment.
Among the customs he had adopted from other lands was the idea of a great public arena. In more civilized societies, such places might have been used for entertainment or athletic competitions. The king, however, had developed a far more unusual purpose for his arena.
It was a place where justice was decided by chance.
The enormous structure stood at the center of the kingdom. It contained wide galleries for spectators, hidden passages, underground chambers, and a number of secret rooms. On important trial days, thousands of people gathered there to witness the king’s idea of justice.
The system was simple.
Whenever a person was accused of a serious crime, the king announced a public trial. On the appointed day, the accused was brought into the arena and made to stand before two identical doors.
Behind one door waited a fierce tiger.
Behind the other stood a young woman selected by the king as a possible bride for the accused.
No one except the king and a few trusted officials knew which door concealed which fate.
The accused person was then required to choose.
If he opened the door containing the tiger, the animal would immediately attack and kill him. The audience would mourn, bells would ring, and the people would return home believing that justice had been served.
If he opened the other door, a beautiful woman would appear. The accused would immediately be married to her, whether he already loved someone else or even had a wife. The king considered this marriage a reward for innocence. Priests, musicians, and dancers would appear, and the wedding would take place before the cheering crowd.
The king regarded the system as perfectly fair.
The accused was free to choose either door. No one forced him toward one or the other. Since he had no knowledge of what waited behind them, his fate appeared to be determined by pure chance.
To the king, this was justice in its most satisfying form.
The people loved the spectacle. On every trial day, they came to the arena filled with curiosity. They might witness a terrible death, or they might witness a wedding. The uncertainty made the occasion exciting.
Even those who considered themselves thoughtful citizens could find no obvious argument against the system. After all, the accused himself opened the door.
What could possibly be fairer than that?
The king was extremely proud of his invention.
He did not seem to notice that his system had little to do with justice and everything to do with power.
For years, the arena served its purpose. Crimes were punished. Innocence was rewarded. The people were entertained.
Then one day, a case appeared that would test the king’s system in a way he had never imagined.
The accused was a young man.
And the young man had fallen in love with the king’s daughter.
Chapter Two
The Royal Daughter
The king’s daughter was unlike any ordinary princess.
She was beautiful, passionate, and strong-willed. She had inherited much of her father’s fierce nature, although she also possessed qualities that made her capable of deep affection and intense loyalty.
The king loved her more than anyone else in the kingdom.
To him, she was the most precious person in the world.
The princess, however, did not always share her father’s ideas. She could be as passionate and impulsive as he was, but her emotions were more personal. When she loved, she loved completely. When she hated, she found it difficult to forgive.
There was no middle ground in her heart.
Among the young men who served at the royal court was one who belonged to a much lower social class than the princess. He was handsome, courageous, and intelligent. Although he had no royal blood, he possessed the qualities that attracted her.
They met often.
At first, their relationship was probably little more than an exchange of glances and brief conversations. But their affection gradually deepened. Before long, they were secretly in love.
Their relationship was dangerous from the beginning.
The young man understood that the king would never accept him as a suitable husband for his daughter. Yet love made him willing to risk everything.
The princess felt the same. For many months, they managed to keep their relationship hidden.
Then the king discovered the truth. His reaction was immediate.
He did not pause to consider his daughter’s feelings. He did not care that the young man was brave, honorable, or deeply in love with her. The young man had crossed a boundary established by the king, and that was enough.
He was arrested and placed in prison.
Soon afterward, the king announced that the young man would be tried in the arena.
The news spread rapidly through the kingdom.
Never before had a case like this attracted so much attention. The young man was not merely accused of an ordinary crime. His offense was that he had dared to love the king’s daughter without the king’s permission.
The people were fascinated. The king was delighted.
The princess was devastated. She knew exactly what the trial meant.
The young man would enter the arena. He would stand before the two doors. Behind one would be death. Behind the other would be marriage to another woman.
And she would be forced to watch. At first, the princess could think of nothing except saving him.
She could not accept the possibility that he might die.
She could not imagine seeing the tiger emerge while the man she loved stood helpless before it.
Yet another possibility was almost as terrible. What if he opened the door and found another woman?
What if the woman were beautiful?
What if he married her before the entire kingdom?
The princess tried to reject such thoughts, but they returned again and again. She knew that she loved him. She also knew that she was capable of jealousy.
The two emotions would soon become impossible to separate.
Chapter Three
A Forbidden Love
The young man had been brought to prison, but the princess refused to accept that his fate was already decided.
She began searching for a way to help him.
The king had designed the arena so that no accused person could know what waited behind the two doors. The secret was carefully protected. The rooms behind the doors were constructed so that no sound could escape. The tiger’s movements could not be heard, and neither could the preparations for the wedding.
The princess understood that she would need more than courage.
She would need information.
Using her influence, her wealth, and the authority that came from being the king’s daughter, she began investigating.
She questioned people.
She searched for information.
She watched those involved in preparing the trial.
Slowly, she learned more than anyone else knew.
Eventually, she discovered the secret.
She learned which room contained the tiger.
She also discovered which room contained the woman who would become the young man’s bride if he opened the other door.
The knowledge gave the princess hope.
At last, she could save him.
But that hope did not last.
When she discovered the identity of the woman waiting behind the safe door, she recognized her immediately.
She was one of the most beautiful young women at court.
The princess had noticed her before.
Sometimes she had seen the woman looking at the young man. Perhaps those looks had meant nothing. Perhaps they had been ordinary expressions of politeness or curiosity.
But the princess had never been able to see them that way.
She remembered every glance.
She remembered the occasions when the young woman and her lover had spoken briefly to each other.
She remembered the woman’s face.
Now that same woman had been chosen to marry him.
The princess hated her.
The hatred frightened her because it was so powerful.
She wanted the young man to live.
That should have been enough.
If he opened the safe door, he would survive.
He would leave the arena alive.
But he would leave with another woman.
The princess imagined the scene repeatedly.
She imagined the door opening.
She imagined the beautiful woman stepping into the arena.
She imagined the young man’s face changing from fear to joy when he realized that he had escaped death.
She imagined him approaching his new bride.
She imagined the priest performing the wedding ceremony.
She imagined the musicians playing.
She imagined the crowd shouting with happiness.
Most painfully of all, she imagined the young man looking at the other woman with love.
These thoughts tormented her.
Then another image would appear.
The tiger.
She imagined the door opening and the enormous animal rushing toward him.
She imagined his final moments.
She imagined the blood.
She imagined the crowd screaming.
She imagined his body lying motionless in the arena.
That image filled her with horror.
Yet the thought of seeing him alive beside another woman seemed almost unbearable.
The princess began to understand that she was trapped between two forms of suffering. One meant losing him through death. The other meant losing him through love.
She spent days and nights thinking about the decision she would eventually have to make.
She knew that the young man would look toward her. She knew that he would ask her silently which door to choose.
She also knew that he trusted her completely. He understood her character.
He knew that she would find the secret. He knew that, if anyone could save him, it would be her.
That knowledge placed an enormous responsibility upon her. She could save him. But could she bear to save him for another woman?
Chapter Four
The Day of Judgment
At last, the day of the trial arrived. From early morning, crowds began moving toward the arena. People came from distant parts of the kingdom, eager to witness an event unlike any they had seen before.
The galleries filled rapidly. Those who could not find seats gathered outside the walls, hoping to hear the sounds of the ceremony.
The king entered with his court and took his place high above the arena.
He appeared calm and satisfied.
The two doors stood opposite him.
They were identical.
They were equally silent.
To everyone except the princess, they concealed two completely different futures.
Behind one waited death.
Behind the other waited a wedding.
The people knew the accused had committed the act for which he was being tried. He had loved the princess, and no one denied it.
But the king’s system did not concern itself with ordinary facts.
The young man would still have to choose.
The princess arrived and took her place beside her father.
She had barely slept.
For days, she had lived with the secret knowledge of the two doors. She had imagined every possible outcome until her mind seemed exhausted.
Yet now that the moment had arrived, her feelings became stronger rather than weaker.
She looked toward the doors.
Then she looked at the entrance through which the young man would appear.
The crowd grew quiet.
A signal was given.
A door beneath the royal platform opened.
The young man stepped into the arena.
He was tall, handsome, and composed despite the danger surrounding him. The crowd reacted with a murmur of admiration.
Many people had never noticed him before.
Now they understood why the princess had fallen in love with him.
He looked toward the king.
Then, according to the custom of the arena, he began to bow.
But before completing the gesture, he looked toward the princess.
He was searching for her.
Their eyes met.
For a moment, the noise of the crowd seemed to disappear.
The princess was pale.
The young man saw her expression and understood.
He had expected her to know.
He had trusted that she would discover the secret of the doors.
And now he could see from her face that she had succeeded.
His future was in her hands.
He did not need words.
His eyes asked the question.
Which door?
Chapter Five
The Secret Behind the Doors
The princess had imagined this moment many times. In her imagination, the answer had always seemed clear. She would point toward the safe door.
She would save the man she loved. Then, after the trial, she would find some way to deal with the unbearable consequences. But imagination was easier than reality.
Now the young man stood before her. He was waiting. The princess knew which door concealed the tiger. She knew which door concealed the woman.
She also knew that the choice would reveal something about her that she could never hide again.
If she directed him toward the tiger, he would die.
There would be no marriage.
No other woman would possess him.
No one would see him love another.
His life would end, but her love for him would remain untouched by another woman’s presence.
The thought was horrifying.
And yet there was something in it that appealed to the darkest part of her nature.
If he could not belong to her, perhaps he should belong to no one.
Then she imagined the tiger again.
She saw the animal bursting from the room.
She imagined the young man’s terror.
She imagined the crowd’s cries.
She imagined his blood.
Her heart recoiled.
No.
She could not knowingly send him to his death.
But then she imagined the other door.
She saw it opening.
She saw the beautiful woman step forward.
She imagined her face bright with relief.
She imagined the young man realizing that he was safe.
She imagined the joy in his expression.
And then she imagined him turning toward the woman.
The princess could almost see them standing together.
She could hear the bells.
She could hear the cheering.
She could see the flowers scattered beneath their feet.
She could see the priest joining them in marriage.
She could see her lover walking away with another woman while the entire kingdom celebrated.
That vision tortured her more than the thought of death.
The princess’s mind moved between these two possibilities.
Save him and lose him.
Kill him and keep the memory of him untouched.
The conflict was not simply between life and death.
It was between love and possession.
She loved him enough to want him alive.
She loved him so intensely that she could not bear the possibility of his happiness with someone else.
She knew that both desires could not be satisfied.
The princess also knew something else.
The young man trusted her.
He had no other source of information.
The king did not know which door she would indicate.
The crowd did not know.
The young man did not know.
Only she possessed the answer.
She looked at the woman behind the door.
The woman was innocent of the princess’s jealousy.
Perhaps she had never intended to steal anyone’s love.
Perhaps the glances the princess had noticed had meant nothing.
But none of that mattered now.
The princess hated her.
And because she hated her, the safe door seemed almost impossible to choose.
Still, the princess remembered the young man’s face.
She remembered his courage.
She remembered the love they had shared.
She remembered the nights when they had spoken privately and imagined a future together.
She remembered that he had trusted her completely.
Surely, she thought, love should mean wanting the person you love to live.
But another voice within her answered:
What kind of life would he have without you?
The princess closed her eyes for a moment. She had already made her decision.
She had made it during the long nights of uncertainty, although she had tried not to admit it even to herself.
Now there was no time left for further hesitation. The young man looked at her again. His expression contained a single question.
Which?
Chapter Six
The Choice
The young man’s eyes remained fixed on the princess. Around him, thousands of people waited in silence. No one moved. No one spoke.
The entire arena seemed to be holding its breath.
The young man knew that the princess had discovered the secret.
He trusted her judgment because he knew her better than anyone else did.
He understood her fierce nature.
He understood the strength of her love.
He also understood that she would not allow him to face the decision without giving him some indication.
His eyes asked again.
Which door?
The princess’s hand rested on the railing before her.
For one brief moment, she remained perfectly still.
Then she raised her hand.
It was a small movement.
Almost invisible.
She pointed toward the right.
Only the young man saw it.
The crowd remained unaware.
The king did not notice.
The people could not understand the meaning of the gesture.
But the young man understood immediately.
He turned.
His face was calm.
There was no hesitation in his step.
He crossed the arena toward the door she had indicated.
Every person in the galleries watched him.
The silence became unbearable.
The young man reached the door.
His hand moved toward the latch.
The princess watched him.
Her heart seemed to stop.
For a final moment, she knew that everything she had felt, everything she had feared, and everything she had decided would be revealed.
The young man opened the door.
Chapter Seven
The Lady or the Tiger?
What came through the door?
The answer appears simple, yet it is not. Behind one door stood the tiger. Behind the other stood the lady.
The young man opened the door chosen by the princess. But which door had she indicated?
The question cannot be answered merely by looking at the final movement of her hand.
To understand it, we must return to the princess herself.
She was not an ordinary woman making an ordinary decision.
She was the daughter of a king whose nature combined civilization with barbarism. She had inherited his intensity, his pride, and his fierce determination.
But she was also a woman deeply in love.
For days and nights, she had imagined the moment when her lover would look to her for guidance.
She had imagined saving him.
She had imagined losing him.
She had imagined his death.
She had imagined his marriage to another woman.
And each vision had awakened a different part of her heart.
When she thought of the tiger, she felt horror.
She could not bear to imagine him being torn apart before her eyes.
Yet when she imagined the lady, another kind of suffering became almost unbearable. She imagined the woman stepping from the door, radiant with relief.
She imagined her lover’s happiness. She imagined him turning toward that woman with gratitude and affection.
She imagined the wedding. She imagined the music. She imagined the cheering crowd.
She imagined the flowers scattered along their path. And she imagined herself standing alone while the man she loved walked away with another woman.
That image had tortured her again and again.
Which fate could she bear?
Which fate could she accept?
The answer depended on what was stronger within her: her love or her jealousy. If love was stronger, she would have pointed toward the door containing the lady.
She would have chosen his life, even though that life would no longer belong to her.
Such a decision would have required a profound act of self-sacrifice. But if jealousy was stronger, she would have pointed toward the tiger.
She would have chosen his death rather than watch another woman receive the happiness she had once imagined for herself.
Perhaps she believed that death would preserve something that life could destroy.
Perhaps she could not tolerate the thought of another woman taking her place.
Perhaps, in that terrible moment, her love became so possessive that she could no longer distinguish between loving someone and possessing them.
The princess had made her choice. She moved her hand to the right. The young man trusted her.
He opened the door. And now the story reaches the question that has no certain answer.
Did the lady come out?
Or did the tiger?
Think of the princess as she sat there, pale and trembling, with her whole emotional world concentrated into one terrible decision.
Think of her love.
Think of her jealousy.
Think of the fear of watching the man she loved die.
Then think of the even more painful possibility of watching him live happily with another woman.
Which feeling was stronger?
No one can say with certainty.
Perhaps the princess chose love.
Perhaps she chose jealousy.
Perhaps she believed that saving his life was more important than keeping him for herself.
Or perhaps the thought of losing him to another woman was more unbearable than death itself.
The young man opened the door because he trusted her.
The crowd waited to see what fate would emerge.
And the princess alone knew what she had chosen.
But she has never told us.
So the question remains:
Did the lady come out of the door, or did the tiger?
The End
Read the original story: americanliterature.com
Vocabulary
- Barbarism — a lack of civilization or civilized behavior, often involving violence or cruelty.
Example: The king’s ideas combined refinement with a powerful instinct for barbarism. - Authority — the power or right to control people, make decisions, or enforce rules.
Example: The king used his absolute authority to control every aspect of the kingdom. - Spectacle — a dramatic or impressive event that attracts a large audience.
Example: Thousands of people gathered to watch the extraordinary spectacle in the arena. - Unpredictable — difficult to know or anticipate because someone or something may behave unexpectedly.
Example: The king was powerful but highly unpredictable, so nobody dared to challenge him. - Accused — a person who is officially blamed for committing a crime or doing something wrong.
Example: The accused had to choose between two identical doors. - Innocence — the state of not having committed a crime or done something wrong.
Example: The king claimed that the safe door would reward the accused for his innocence. - Fate — the idea that particular events are destined to happen to a person.
Example: The young man had to choose a door and accept whatever fate awaited him. - Relentless — continuing without becoming weaker or stopping, especially in a threatening or determined way.
Example: The king ordered that the most relentless tiger be chosen for the trial. - Affection — a feeling of love, care, or strong liking for someone.
Example: The princess’s affection for the young man gradually developed into a deep love. - Forbidden — not allowed because of a rule, law, or powerful person’s decision.
Example: Their forbidden love placed the young man in serious danger.
- Devastated — extremely upset or emotionally overwhelmed by a painful event.
Example: The princess was devastated when she learned that her lover would face the arena. - Jealousy — a powerful feeling of insecurity or anger caused by the fear of losing someone to another person.
Example: The princess’s jealousy became almost as powerful as her love. - Possessive — unwilling to allow someone you love to have close relationships with other people.
Example: Her love gradually became so possessive that she could not accept his happiness with another woman. - Deliberation — careful and serious consideration before making an important decision.
Example: After days of painful deliberation, the princess finally knew what she would do. - Self-sacrifice — the act of giving up something important for the benefit or happiness of another person.
Example: Choosing the lady would have required an extraordinary act of self-sacrifice. - Hesitation — a pause caused by uncertainty or doubt about what to do.
Example: The young man walked toward the chosen door without a moment’s hesitation. - Compassion — a strong feeling of sympathy for someone who is suffering, together with a desire to help them.
Example: Her compassion urged her to save the man she loved from a terrible death. - Possessiveness — an excessive desire to control someone or prevent them from having a close relationship with others.
Example: The princess struggled between genuine love and dangerous possessiveness. - Anguish — extreme emotional or mental suffering caused by fear, loss, or uncertainty.
Example: The princess experienced deep anguish as she imagined both possible outcomes. - Ambiguous — having more than one possible meaning or interpretation, so that the exact meaning remains uncertain.
Example: The story has an ambiguous ending because we never discover what came through the door.
Comprehension Questions
1. Why does the king consider his unusual system of justice to be completely fair, and what assumptions does this system make about justice?
2. How does the design and purpose of the arena reflect the king’s personality and his approach to power?
3. Why does the young man’s love for the princess become such a serious offense in the king’s eyes?
4. How does the princess’s character differ from that of an ordinary royal daughter, and what aspects of her personality resemble her father?
5. Why does the princess decide to discover what lies behind the two doors, and what does this decision reveal about her determination?
6. How does the princess obtain the secret of the doors, and why does this knowledge place her under such intense emotional pressure?
7. Why does the identity of the woman behind the safe door make the princess’s decision considerably more difficult?
8. What do the princess’s thoughts about the tiger and the lady reveal about the conflict between her love and her jealousy?
9. Why can the princess’s decision be understood as a conflict between self-sacrifice and possessiveness?
10. How does the young man demonstrate his trust in the princess when he enters the arena?
11. What does the young man understand from the princess’s expression before she gives him her signal?
12. How does the atmosphere in the arena change as the young man approaches the two doors?
13. Why is the princess’s gesture toward the right door so significant, even though it is almost invisible to everyone else?
14. What different consequences might follow from the princess choosing the door containing the lady rather than the door containing the tiger?
15. Why is the princess unable to find a solution that allows her to save both the young man and her relationship with him?
16. How does the king’s concept of justice contrast with the emotional reality experienced by the princess and the young man?
17. Why does the narrator emphasize that the final decision depends on the princess’s character and emotions rather than simply on the physical location of the tiger?
18. How does the story use uncertainty and suspense to make the reader question what the princess ultimately chose?
19. Why does the narrator deliberately leave the outcome of the young man’s choice unresolved?
20. What does the ambiguous ending suggest about the complex relationship between love, jealousy, sacrifice, and human nature?
Grammar Exercises
1. The king’s system of justice, ______ by the people as fair, was actually based entirely on chance.
A) regarding
B) regarded
C) having regarded
D) to regard
2. Whenever something went wrong in the kingdom, the king became even more cheerful, ______ nothing pleased him more than correcting disorder.
A) although
B) whereas
C) since
D) unless
3. The accused person was required to choose one of the two doors, neither of ______ revealed what lay behind it.
A) whom
B) which
C) them
D) that
4. If the accused ______ the door containing the tiger, he would immediately be attacked and killed.
A) would open
B) had opened
C) opened
D) has opened
5. The young man would have been spared if the princess ______ him toward the door containing the lady.
A) had directed
B) would direct
C) directed
D) has directed
6. ______ the young man’s lower social position, the princess continued to love him deeply.
A) Although
B) Despite
C) Even
D) Nevertheless
7. The princess had discovered which door contained the tiger before the young man ______ into the arena.
A) had entered
B) entered
C) has entered
D) would enter
8. The woman behind the safe door was someone whom the princess ______ several times at court.
A) has noticed
B) had noticed
C) would notice
D) was noticing
9. The princess could not bear ______ her lover marry another woman in front of the entire kingdom.
A) see
B) seeing
C) to seeing
D) having see
10. ______ what the princess had decided, the young man looked directly into her eyes.
A) Knowing
B) Known
C) To know
D) Having been known
11. The young man walked toward the door without ______ for even a moment.
A) hesitate
B) hesitating
C) having hesitated
D) hesitation to
12. The princess’s decision was so difficult that she spent several nights ______ about the possible consequences.
A) reflect
B) to reflect
C) reflecting
D) reflected
13. Had the princess chosen the tiger, the young man ______ his life.
A) loses
B) would lose
C) would have lost
D) had lost
14. It was not until the young man looked at the princess ______ he understood that she knew the secret.
A) when
B) which
C) that
D) what
15. Rarely ______ the people of the kingdom witnessed such a dramatic trial.
A) had
B) have
C) did
D) were
16. The princess knew that, whatever happened, she ______ to live with the consequences of her decision.
A) has
B) would have
C) had
D) will have
17. The two doors looked identical, ______ they concealed completely different outcomes.
A) despite
B) even though
C) in spite
D) whereas of
18. The young man trusted the princess completely, ______ he knew that she alone had discovered the secret.
A) because
B) unless
C) despite
D) whereas
19. The narrator leaves the final question unanswered, thereby ______ the reader to decide what happened.
A) allow
B) allowed
C) allowing
D) to allowing
20. Whatever ______ behind the door, the princess’s decision reveals the depth and complexity of her emotions.
A) was waiting
B) waits
C) had waited
D) would wait
Answers:
1-B, 2-C, 3-B, 4-C, 5-A, 6-B, 7-B, 8-B, 9-B, 10-A, 11-B, 12-C, 13-C, 14-C, 15-C, 16-B, 17-B, 18-A, 19-C, 20-A
More C1–C2 English Stories to Read
01. The Open Boat (for Advanced Levels C1-C2)
The Open Boat is a powerful short story by the American writer Stephen Crane, first published in 1897. The story was inspired by Crane’s own experience of surviving a shipwreck while travelling to Cuba as a war correspondent. After the steamer Commodore sank off the coast of Florida, Crane and three other men spent many hours struggling to survive in a small open boat. This real-life experience became the foundation of one of Crane’s most memorable works.
The story follows four men — the Captain, the Correspondent, the Cook, and the Oiler — who are stranded at sea after their ship sinks. They have only a small boat between themselves and the powerful ocean. Exhausted, hungry, and uncertain whether anyone will rescue them, they take turns rowing, removing water from the boat, and watching the waves. As they approach the coast, their hope of reaching safety repeatedly rises and falls.
02. Young Goodman Brown (for Advanced Levels C1-C2)
“Young Goodman Brown” is one of the best-known short stories by American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. First published in 1835, the story explores important themes such as faith, temptation, hypocrisy, sin, and the difficulty of knowing what other people are truly like. Hawthorne was especially interested in the conflict between outward appearances and hidden human weaknesses, and this story is one of his most memorable explorations of that idea.
The story follows Goodman Brown, a young man living in Salem with his wife, Faith. One evening, despite his wife’s fears, Brown leaves home and enters a dark forest for a mysterious journey. There he meets a strange traveller carrying a staff shaped like a serpent. As Brown travels deeper into the forest, he begins to discover disturbing secrets about people he has always considered respectable and religious.
03. The Garden Party (for Advanced Levels C1-C2)
The Garden-Party is a celebrated short story by Katherine Mansfield, one of the most influential short-story writers of the early twentieth century. The story was first published in 1922 and is known for its vivid descriptions, subtle social criticism, and exploration of life, death, class, and human sympathy.
Katherine Mansfield was a New Zealand-born writer who became an important figure in modernist literature. Her stories often focus on ordinary moments that lead characters to unexpected emotional or psychological discoveries. Rather than relying on dramatic action, Mansfield was particularly interested in people’s thoughts, feelings, relationships, and changing perceptions.