Final answer:
Trying to instantiate an abstract base class leads to a compilation error because abstract classes are designed to serve as a base for subclasses to implement the detailed behavior(option a).
Step-by-step explanation:
If we try to instantiate an abstract base class, the result will typically be a a) compilation error.
An abstract class is intended to provide a base for other classes to extend and is not meant to be instantiated on its own. In object-oriented programming, abstract classes can contain abstract methods which have no implementation and therefore, instantiating such a class doesn't make sense because it may contain incomplete methods that were meant to be implemented by a subclass. Trying to instantiate an abstract class is often caught at compile time, not run time, highlighting the error in the code.