19 February 2025 · Shift 2

Venn diagram of classes Some doctors are men and some men are doctors, but not every doctor is a man and not every man is a doctor, so the two classes only partly overlap. A table is a piece of furniture, so no table can be a doctor or a man; that class stays completely outside both. The picture therefore needs two intersecting circles for Doctors and Men and a third circle standing on its own for Tables. Option (a) makes Tables cut Men, option (c) puts both circles inside one larger class and option (d) keeps Doctors and Men apart, so each of them states a relation the words do not. Hence the correct option is (b).

Letter-cluster analogy Compare RGLA with ODHW letter by letter: the first two letters move 3 places back and the last two move 4 places back. R-3=O, G-3=D, L-4=H and A-4=W (from A count back through Z, Y, X to W). The second pair obeys the same rule: C-3=Z, T-3=Q, Z-4=V, W-4=S, giving ZQVS. Now apply -3,-3,-4,-4 to NBUP: N-3=K, B-3=Y, U-4=Q, P-4=L. Hence the correct option is (d).

Circular seating arrangement Everyone faces the centre, so a person's left is the clockwise direction and the right is the anticlockwise direction. Fix G. 'J sits third to the left of G' places J three seats clockwise from G, i.e. on the 4th seat if G is on the 1st. 'Only G sits between H and M' means H and M take the two seats next to G, one on each side. 'M sits second to the left of K' means K is two seats anticlockwise from M; that is possible only when M is the seat just anticlockwise of G and H the seat just clockwise of G, which puts K on the 5th seat. The two seats left, the 3rd and the 6th, go to I and L; since L is not next to J (the 4th seat), L takes the 6th and I the 3rd. The clockwise order is G, H, I, J, K, L, M. Counting from I towards its right (anticlockwise) we pass H and G before reaching M. So two people sit between I and M, and the correct option is (d).

Embedded figure Read figure (X) as one unbroken stroke: a peak, then a short step along the bottom, then a tall upright, then a short step along the top, and finally a V that falls and rises. So (X) needs the peak BELOW and to the LEFT of the tall upright, and the V ABOVE and to the RIGHT of it. In option (b) start at the bottom-left corner, climb to the peak, come down to the bottom edge, run right to the foot of the centre line, go straight up it, step right along the top edge, drop to the vertex of the V and rise to the top-right corner - that is exactly (X). Option (a) has only a long corner-to-corner diagonal and parallel bars, so it holds no peak at all. Options (c) and (d) do carry a peak and a V, but on the wrong sides of the centre line - the V is at the top left or the peak at the top - and rotation is not allowed, so (X) cannot be laid on them. Hence the correct option is (b).

Code from letter count The letters themselves carry no meaning here - only how many of them there are. 'PVQCB' has 5 letters and its code is 4, so 5-1=4. 'MOZWITZ' has 7 letters and its code is 6, so 7-1=6. 'RPAW' has 4 letters, so its code is 4-1=3. Hence the correct option is (a).

Odd letter-cluster out Measure the two gaps inside each cluster: first letter to second, then second to third. RWP: R+5=W and W-7=P. JOH: J+5=O and O-7=H. NSL: N+5=S and S-7=L. PUL: P+5=U is right, but U-9=L, not -7; the second gap is the one that breaks. Hence the correct option is (d).

Circular seating arrangement All seven face the centre, so the immediate left of a person is the next seat clockwise and the immediate right is the next seat anticlockwise. 'A is to the immediate right of F' means F comes just after A clockwise, and 'A is to the immediate left of C' means A comes just after C: clockwise we get C, A, F. 'G is to the immediate right of C and the immediate left of E' gives E, G, C, so the chain grows to E, G, C, A, F. 'D is to the immediate left of F and the immediate right of B' gives F, D, B, and the seven seats close up as E, G, C, A, F, D, B. The immediate left of B is the next seat clockwise from B, which brings us back to E. Hence the correct option is (a).

Interchange of signs Swap the signs first: every - becomes $÷$, every $÷$ becomes -, every $\times$ becomes + and every + becomes $\times$. $40+24-6\times 12÷3$ turns into $40\times 24÷6+12-3$. Now apply BODMAS - multiplication and division first, working from left to right. $40\times 24=960$, then $960÷6=160$. 160+12=172, then 172-3=169. Hence the correct option is (a).

Opposite faces of a dice V shows on the right face in both views, so V is the face the cube has been turned about. Everything that appears beside V is therefore adjacent to V: Z and X from view I, Y and W from view II. That is four different neighbours - Z, X, Y and W - and a cube face has exactly four neighbours. The only letter never seen next to V is U, so U must be the face hidden behind V. So U and V lie opposite each other and the face opposite U carries V; the correct option is (d).

Figure series Every cell holds the same square with both diagonals; two things move inside it. The small circle moves one triangle CLOCKWISE at each step: top, right, bottom, left. The side of the square that is left OPEN moves one side ANTICLOCKWISE at each step: right, top, left, bottom. Both cycles have length four, so after the fourth figure they return to their starting places: the fifth figure has the circle in the TOP triangle and the RIGHT side open. All four options are drawn with the right side open, so the circle's triangle is the only feature that separates them - it is in the right triangle in (a), the bottom in (b) and the left in (d). Only (c) puts the circle in the top triangle, so the correct option is (c).

Paper folding and punching The first fold brings the top half DOWN on the bottom half, the second brings the left half ACROSS on the right half, so the punches are made in the bottom-right quarter. That quarter carries two marks: a straight slit in its upper part and, near its lower edge, a filled half-circle with an arc arching over it (a dome). Undoing the vertical fold mirrors both marks left-right into the bottom-left quarter, giving two slits side by side and two domes side by side. Undoing the horizontal fold mirrors the whole lower half top-to-bottom into the upper half, and that flip turns each dome into a cup - flat edge on top with the arc sagging below it. So the sheet must show, from top to bottom, two cups, then a row of two slits, then another row of two slits, then two domes - eight marks in two matching columns. Option (b) has curved punches in the second row where slits belong, option (c) is not symmetric about either fold line, and option (d) shows only four marks instead of eight. Hence the correct option is (a).

Syllogism Only the first statement is universal: it locks the whole slipper circle inside the knife circle. The other two are 'some' statements, so their overlaps may be drawn anywhere. Conclusion (I): the pizzas touch only the rats, the rats touch only part of the knives, and that part need not contain a single slipper - so 'Some pizzas are slippers' is possible but not certain. Conclusion (II): 'Some knives are rats' does not say which knives; the rats may overlap the knives entirely outside the slipper circle, so 'Some rats are slippers' is also only possible. A conclusion follows only if it is true in EVERY diagram the statements allow, and the diagram above is a counter-example to both. Hence neither conclusion follows and the correct option is (d).

Letter-cluster series Take the three letter positions one at a time instead of the clusters as a whole. First letters: K, L, M, N - one step forward each time, so the next is O. Second letters: A, D, G, J - three steps forward each time, so the next is M. Third letters: M, N, O, P - one step forward each time, so the next is Q. Putting them together gives OMQ; OPQ fails because the middle letter must jump 3, not 6. Hence the correct option is (d).

Coded blood relation Break the string into its four links and read each symbol from the key. $P\times Q$: P is the wife of Q. Q-R: Q is the brother of R. $R÷S$: R is the father of S. S+T: S is the daughter of T. So S has R for a father and T for a parent; since R is the father, T must be the mother, which makes R the husband of T. Q is the brother of R, so Q is the brother of T's husband, and P is the wife of Q. P is therefore the wife of T's husband's brother - in one phrase, T's husband's brother's wife. Hence the correct option is (c).

Letter-number analogy Handle the two letters and the number separately; each drops by the same amount. LY 15 to JW 13: L-2=J, Y-2=W and 15-2=13. DW 25 to BU 23: D-2=B, W-2=U and 25-2=23, so the rule is confirmed. MR 35: M-2=K, R-2=P and 35-2=33, giving KP 33. Hence the correct option is (d).

Missing letters in a series Twenty places and five blanks divide neatly into five groups of four letters: _NRM / Q_OJ / NH_G / KEI_ / HBF_. Compare the letters that are already there: Q-3=N, O-3=L, J-3=G, so each group is the group before it with every letter moved 3 places back. Work the chain from the known letters: NRM in the first group needs T in front of it, because T-3=Q matches the Q that opens the second group. That gives TNRM, QKOJ, NHLG, KEID, HBFA. Reading the five blanks in order: T, K, L, D, A. Hence the correct option is (d).

Number series Write the terms out and take the difference between each pair of neighbours. 91-87=4, 94-91=3, 98-94=4, 101-98=3. The differences repeat in the cycle +4, +3, so after +3 the next difference must be +4. 101+4=105. Hence the correct option is (a).

Letter place values Each letter is simply replaced by its position in the English alphabet. Check it: N=14, A=1, N=14, D=4, A=1 gives 14-1-14-4-1, and G=7, O=15, P=16, A=1, L=12 gives 7-15-16-1-12. For BISWAS: B=2, I=9, S=19, W=23, A=1, S=19. All four options agree except at the fourth number, so only W matters: W is the 23rd letter, while 20, 21 and 22 are T, U and V. Hence the correct option is (d).

Alphabetical rearrangement Write the word, then write its eight letters in alphabetical order underneath. CREATION rearranged alphabetically is ACEINORT. Now compare the two rows place by place: C/A, R/C, E/E, A/I, T/N, I/O, O/R, N/T. Only the third place has the same letter in both rows, namely E. So exactly one letter keeps its position, and the correct option is (d).

Number series Take the difference between each pair of consecutive terms. 1000-990=10, 1011-1000=11, 1023-1011=12, 1036-1023=13. The differences themselves grow by 1 each time, so the next difference is 14. 1036+14=1050. Hence the correct option is (d).