When a thread tries to access a synchronized block in Java, it must first obtain the "Lock" on the object. This ensures that only one thread can execute the synchronized code block at a time, preventing race conditions.

The correct answer is getPort(). In Java, the URL class provides the getPort() method, which allows you to obtain the port number of a URL. This is useful when working with network-related tasks where you need to know the port associated with a particular URL.

In Java, the commonly used class for reading characters from a file is FileReader. It is part of the java.io package and is specifically designed for character input. Other options like FileWriter, FileInputReader, and FileOutputReader are not standard classes in Java for file reading.

In Java, you can use the static valueOf method of the Integer class to obtain a string representation of a primitive data type. For example, Integer.valueOf(42) will return the string "42". The other options do not provide this specific functionality.

Merge Sort has a space complexity of O(n) because it creates a temporary array to hold the merged subarrays during the sorting process. Unlike some other sorting algorithms like Quick Sort, Merge Sort does not use a constant amount of extra memory (O(1)) or divide the memory usage logarithmically (O(log n)).

The Serializable interface in Java does not contain any methods. Instead, it serves as a marker interface, indicating that the class implementing it can be serialized. Serialization allows objects to be converted into a byte stream for storage or transmission. It's used for objects that need to be saved to a file or sent over a network.

In this code, x is first assigned the value 10, and then the compound assignment operator *= multiplies it by 3. So, x will be assigned the value 30. The other options are incorrect as they don't represent the correct result of the code.

The incorrect statement is that strings in Java can be reliably compared using the == operator. In Java, the == operator compares references for objects, not their content. To compare the content of two strings, you should use the equals() method. The other options accurately describe aspects of the String data type.

The "this" keyword in Java is used to refer to the current instance of a class. When used as a statement, "this" is used to invoke the constructor of the same class. This makes option 4 ("This") the correct choice.

In Java, a custom exception can be thrown using the throw keyword followed by an object of the custom exception class. This allows you to handle specific exceptional situations that may not be covered by built-in exceptions. It's an essential part of creating robust and specialized exception handling in Java applications.