Final answer:
The output of the C++ statement cout << ("the") << endl; is 'the' since it prints the string literal 'the' directly to the console.
Step-by-step explanation:
Considering the statement string str = "Gone with the wind";, the output of the statement cout << ("the") << endl; is c. the. The given C++ code is not using the string str when outputting to the console. Instead, it is explicitly printing the string literal "the" followed by a newline character, which is what endl represents. Thus, the output to the console would simply be the word "the", regardless of the contents of the string str.