I'd choose this dialogue to revise your sentence:
<span>“Did you hear?” I asked them. “My painting got selected! Exciting, right?” I smiled. “Especially given that I felt so incompetent at the beginning and that the competition was ruthless!”
</span>
It feels like the option that best uses the dialogue to improve this sentence, because the other options are either too informal or just the same sentence as the original one.
I'm pretty sure this is true.... hope this helps!
Based on the given sentence above, the correct answer for this would be the third option. Basing on the point of view of the speaker, we can say that it is in the third person in which he/she means of Akiko. Since Akiko is only one, this is considered as singular. Hope this answer helps.
Yes the correct answer is "said" (b). If you get stuck on a similar question, it helps to read the sentence with each comma to hear which makes sense.
It is spoken by a single character
it reveals Lomov's personal thoughts
