Answer:
The answer is your first option: <u>The emperor rewards his subjects for jumping over and under a stick.</u>
Explanation:
The "silken threads" as mentioned on the text, are the rewards the emperor wishes to give to his subjects for doing what he is claiming: jumping over and under the stick, we know this for the following line: <em>while the candidates advancing, one by one, sometimes leap over the stick, sometimes creep under it, backward and forward. </em>We have the word "candidates", which are the subjects, and "leap over the stick" is the act of jumping over it.
The second option is the most akward, as the narrator has nothing to do in the story, he only tells is. The third option isn't possible either for there is no prompt for knowing that both, the empress and emperor have no respect for their subjects, and the final option is unknown as it doesn't mention whether the threads and sticks should be replaced or not, again, there is no prompt as for the reader to know that from this excerpt.
