13 February 2025 · Shift 1

Venn diagram of classes Every father is himself the son of his own parents, and every brother is the son of his own parents, so both classes lie completely inside the class 'Son'. A father need not be anybody's brother and a brother need not be a father, yet one man can be both, so 'Father' and 'Brother' only partly overlap. The picture needed is therefore two partly overlapping circles drawn inside one larger circle. Three mutually overlapping circles would allow a father who is not a son, and three separate circles would deny that a brother can be a father, so neither of those fits. Hence the correct option is (a).

Paper folding and cutting The lower half is folded up onto the upper half, so the packet that is cut has two layers and the fold line is the horizontal centre line of the sheet. The row of four cuts - square, circle, square, circle - lies well inside the folded half, so on opening it prints once near the top of the sheet and once, mirrored about the fold, near the bottom. The triangle is cut ON the fold line itself, so its mirror joins it edge to edge and the two halves open out as ONE complete rhombus at the centre of the sheet. So the unfolded sheet needs both rows of four shapes and a single rhombus sitting on the centre line - not a triangle at the top and bottom, and not four shapes in the corners only. Hence the correct option is (a).

Odd letter-cluster Measure the two steps inside each cluster: first letter to second, then second letter to third. ZCA, GJH and LOM all move +3 and then -2 (for ZCA the count runs past Z and starts again at A). MPD starts correctly with M+3=P, but the second step is $P\left(16\right)\to D\left(4\right)$, i.e. -12 instead of -2. Hence the correct option is (c).

Letter coding pattern Compare each letter of the word with the letter standing in the same place in its code. The shift depends only on the position, never on the letter: $+6,-3,0,-7,-2,+4$, and STRING $\to$ YQRBLK obeys exactly the same list. Apply it to CIRCLE: C+6=I, I-3=F, R+0=R, C-7=V (counting back past A to V), L-2=J, E+4=I. That gives IFRVJI; the options starting with K wrongly shift the first letter by +8. Hence the correct option is (d).

Letter series blanks The line holds 24 places, so try a block of 8 letters repeated three times. Every letter that is actually printed fits the block tarivolv. Writing the three blocks under the given line: t a r _ _ o l v / t _ r i v _ _ v / t a r _ v _ l _. The eight covered letters, read from left to right, are i, v, a, o, l, i, o, v. Hence the correct option is (b).

Figure series completion Each box of the series holds two things: one capital letter on the left and a stack of small squares on the right. The stack never changes - there are exactly two small squares in every box - so the only moving part is the letter. The letter steps one place back in the English alphabet each time: $Q\to P\to O\to N$. The fifth box therefore carries N-1=M together with the same two small squares. The option with three squares changes the part that never changes, and the options with L or N take the wrong step, so neither can be the answer. Hence the correct option is (a).

Number coding by length The letters themselves carry no meaning here - only how many of them there are. SBZFPA has 6 letters and $6\times 3=18$; GNPQ has 4 letters and $4\times 3=12$. LCEZRDX has 7 letters, so its code is $7\times 3=21$. Hence the correct option is (a).

Parallel row seating Draw the two rows one under the other with north at the top and number the seats 1 to 4 from the left; seat 1 of one row then faces seat 1 of the other. Row 2 faces north, so for U, V, W and X 'right' is towards the right of the drawing. Only two people sit between L and M, so L and M take the two end seats, 1 and 4, of row 1. W is immediately right of U, so U cannot be in seat 4; since U faces L, L must be in seat 1 and M in seat 4, giving U seat 1 and W seat 2. X is not at an end, so X gets seat 3 and V gets seat 4. The person facing N sits immediately left of V, i.e. X in seat 3, so N is in seat 3 of row 1 and O is left with seat 2. Seat 2 of row 2 holds W, so W faces O. Hence the correct option is (d).

Mirror image at LM LM is a vertical mirror standing at the right of the figure, so left and right are exchanged while top and bottom are left exactly where they are. In the given figure the solid black block fills the TOP-RIGHT corner, so in the image it must fill the TOP-LEFT corner - still at the top. The solid black bar lies along the BOTTOM, a little left of centre, so in the image it must still lie along the bottom, now a little right of centre. The slant that falls from the upper left down to the middle must reverse and rise from the middle up to the upper right. Only one option does all three at once: the option that keeps the black block against the right edge has not reflected anything, the one that drops the block to the lower left and the one that carries the black bar up to the top edge have both turned the figure over top to bottom, which a vertical mirror never does. Hence the correct option is (b).

Interchange of signs Swap the signs first and only then work the expression out. $24+25-5\times 2÷9$ becomes $24\times 25÷5+2-9$. By BODMAS, multiplication and division come first, left to right: $24\times 25=600$ and $600÷5=120$. Then 120+2-9=113. Hence the correct option is (c).

Letter-number analogy Treat the letters and the number separately. Both letters move one step forward: BD $\to$ CE and ST $\to$ TU. The number is multiplied by 3: $11\times 3=33$ and $10\times 3=30$. So UB $\to$ VC and $2\times 3=6$, giving VC 6; note that U itself must move to V, which rules out the options that keep U. Hence the correct option is (c).

Linear seating order Number the seven seats 1 to 7 from the left; all seven face north, so left and right are the same as in the drawing. 'Only L sits to the left of X' means exactly one person is left of X, so X is in seat 2 and L in seat 1. Only four people sit between L and N, so N is in seat 6. Only M sits between O and W, so O, M and W fill three consecutive seats; seats 5-6-7 and 4-5-6 are blocked by N in seat 6, leaving seats 3, 4 and 5 with M in seat 4. O is not an immediate neighbour of N, so O cannot take seat 5; O goes to seat 3 and W to seat 5, and Y is left with seat 7. The extreme right of the line is seat 7, which is Y. Hence the correct option is (b).

Rearranging word letters Reverse alphabetical order means from Z down to A, and repeated letters are written together. The eight letters D, E, T, E, C, T, O, R sorted that way give T, T, R, O, E, E, D, C. Now compare place by place: D-T, E-T, T-R, E-O, C-E, T-E, O-D, R-C. No place holds the same letter in both rows, so the count is Zero. Hence the correct option is (c).

Alternating number series Read the digit string as two-digit numbers: 53, 42, 49, 38, 45, 34, ? The steps alternate: one down, one up. 53-11=42, 42+7=49, 49-11=38, 38+7=45, 45-11=34. The next step is the +7 step, so 34+7=41. Hence the correct option is (a).

Number series difference Read the digit string as three-digit numbers: 123, 121, 117, 111, ?, 93. The amount subtracted grows by 2 each time: $-2,-4,-6,-8,-10$. 123-2=121, 121-4=117, 117-6=111, so the missing term is 111-8=103. The check works: 103-10=93, which is the last term given. Hence the correct option is (a).

Letter-cluster series Every letter of a term moves 2 steps back to give the letter below it in the next term. First letters: $L\to J\to H\to F\to D$. Second letters: $Y\to W\to U\to S\to Q$. Third letters: $G\to E\to C\to A\to Y$, because counting 2 back from A runs past Z and lands on Y. So the missing term is DQY. Hence the correct option is (a).

Letter-digit matching code The digits are not in the same order as the letters, so match the two words by what they share. COWS and COST have three letters in common: C, O and S. Their codes 5691 and 1679 have three digits in common: 1, 6 and 9. So C, O and S use 1, 6 and 9 in some order; the digit left over in COWS is 5, which must stand for W, and the digit left over in COST is 7, which must stand for T. Hence the correct option is (b).

Coded blood relation Break the string K - L × M + N ÷ O at each sign and read the pairs from left to right. K - L: K is the daughter of L, so L is a parent of K. L × M: L is the sister of M, so L is female and M is her brother. M + N: M is the brother of N, and N ÷ O: N is the father of O - neither of these touches K. L is female and a parent of K, so L is K's mother; M is L's brother, so M is the brother of K's mother. Hence the correct option is (b).

Syllogism conclusions All handles are locks, so the handle circle lies wholly inside the lock circle. No lock is a shelf, so the shelf circle lies completely outside the lock circle - and therefore outside the handle circle as well. Conclusion (I) 'No handle is a shelf' is forced by the diagram, so it follows. Cupboards and shelves are each known only to be outside locks; nothing at all ties them to each other, so they may overlap or may not, and a 'some' statement that is merely possible does not follow. Hence the correct option is (d).

Paper folding and cutting The lower half is folded up onto the upper half, so every cut passes through both layers and the fold line is the horizontal centre line of the sheet. The two downward-pointing triangles are cut well inside the folded half, so each opens as a pair: the two stay near the top corners and their mirrors appear as upward-pointing triangles near the bottom corners. The half-circle is cut ON the fold line itself, so its mirror joins it along the diameter and the two halves open out as ONE complete circle at the centre of the sheet. That single unbroken circle is the deciding detail: one option splits the centre into two separated half-circles and another shows two whole circles one above the other, and neither can come from a single half-circle cut on the fold. Hence the correct option is (d).