Non Verbal Reasoning Questions and Answers

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On a particular Saturday, a student will perform six activities — grocery shopping, hedge trimming, jogging, kitchen cleaning, laundry, and motorbike servicing. Each activity will be performed once, one at a time. The order in which the activities are performed is subject to the following conditions:

Grocery shopping has to be immediately after hedge trimming.
Kitchen cleaning has to be earlier than grocery shopping.
Motorbike servicing has to be earlier than laundry.
Motorbike servicing has to be either immediately before or immediately after jogging.

Which one of the following, if substituted for the condition that motorbike servicing has to be earlier than laundry, would have the same effect in determining the order of the student's activities?

a

Laundry has to be one of the last three activities

b

Laundry has to be either immediately before or immediately after jogging

c

Jogging has to be earlier than laundry

d

Laundry has to be earlier than hedge trimming

correct answer c

This question asks you to select the condition which, if substituted for the third condition in the passage (repeated below), would have the same effect as the original condition.

Third condition: Motorbike servicing has to be earlier than laundry.

In this case, you can deduce that the correct answer choice is (C):

(C) Jogging has to be earlier than laundry.

The fourth condition in the passage tells you that motorbike servicing has to be either immediately before or immediately after jogging. That is, M and J must be ordered as a block, either MJ or JM, with respect to the other four activities. Thus, if, as the original third condition states, M has to be earlier than L, then we know that J must also be earlier than L. Conversely, if, as the new condition in answer choice (C) states, J has to be earlier than L, then we know that M must also be earlier than L. In short, the third condition and answer choice (C) have exactly the same effect. Therefore, answer choice (C) is correct.

Another way to approach this kind of question is to attempt to eliminate all of the incorrect answer choices. Under this approach, you want to rule out any answer choice that does either of the following:

rules out outcomes that the original condition allows
allows outcomes that the original condition rules out

Let's see how this approach would enable us to eliminate answer choices (A), (B) and (D).

Consider the condition presented in answer choice (A):

(A) Laundry has to be one of the last three activities.

We can first ask whether this condition would rule out outcomes that the original third condition allows. To answer this question, we must simply determine whether there is an outcome allowed by the original third condition along with the other conditions in which laundry is one of the first three activities. Here is such an outcome:

1	2	3	4	5	6
M	J	L	K	H	G

Because the original third condition allows this outcome, but the condition in answer choice (A) does not, answer choice (A) cannot be correct.

Consider answer choice (B):

(B) Laundry has to be either immediately before or immediately after jogging.

Again, we want to first determine whether this new condition would rule out outcomes that the original third condition allows. To answer this question, we must simply determine whether there is at least one outcome allowed by the original third condition along with the other conditions in which laundry is neither immediately before nor immediately after jogging. Here is one such outcome:

1	2	3	4	5	6
K	H	G	J	M	L

This outcome, although allowed by the original third condition, would be ruled out by the alternative condition given in answer choice (B). Thus, answer choice (B) cannot be correct.

Next consider answer choice (D):

(D) Laundry has to be earlier than hedge trimming.

Again, we want to first determine whether this new condition would rule out outcomes that the original third condition allows. To answer this question, we must simply determine whether there is at least one outcome allowed by the original third condition along with the other conditions in which laundry is not earlier than hedge trimming. One such outcome was given immediately above: since L is not earlier than H in this outcome, it would be ruled out by the condition in answer choice (D). So, answer choice (D) rules out an outcome that the original third condition allows, and therefore (D) cannot be the correct answer choice.

42

Four students are sitting on a bench in a classroom . Suresh is sitting leftside of Rajeev . Manoj is sitting to the right side of Rajeev . Ravi is sitting between Rajeev and Manoj .Who is sitting in the second position from left hand side in the bench ?

a

Suresh

b

Rajeev

c

Ravi

d

Manoj

correct answer b

Suresh is to the left of Rajeev. Manoj is sitting to the right of Rajeev. Ravi is sitting between Rajeev and Manoj. Hence by arranging students in the appropriate positions we will get the correct sequence.

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