Final answer:
The extended ASCII character set can represent up to 256 different characters. A text file with 2698 characters uses some combination of these available characters. Thus, the correct answer to how many characters the extended ASCII can represent is option b) 256.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question seems to be asking how many different characters can be represented using the extended ASCII character set, rather than how many characters a text file contains. Extended ASCII can represent up to 256 characters.
When the question states a text file has 2698 characters, it means that there are 2698 individual characters in the file. However, the count of characters possible in a set, such as the extended ASCII character set, remains at 256 characters total.
Thus, even if a file contains 2698 characters, they are all represented using some combination of the 256 characters available in the extended ASCII set.