What does '$' mean in a certain code language? Statement I: '5$#3' means…
2025
What does '$' mean in a certain code language?
Statement I: '5$#3' means 'flowers are really good'.
Statement II: '7#35' means 'good flowers are available'.
- A.
I alone is sufficient while II alone is not sufficient
- B.
II alone is sufficient while I alone is not sufficient
- C.
Either I or II is sufficient
- D.
Both I and II are sufficient
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
In coded-sentence Data Sufficiency questions, a single coded statement fixes only a SET-to-SET correspondence between its symbols and the words of its sentence -- it never says which particular symbol stands for which particular word. A specific symbol's meaning can be pinned down only by comparing two coded statements: the symbols common to both strings must stand for the words common to both sentences, and the symbol left over then stands for the word left over.
Statement I codes '5 $ # 3' for the four words 'flowers', 'are', 'really', 'good' (a set correspondence -- order not implied).
Statement II codes '7 # 3 5' for the four words 'good', 'flowers', 'are', 'available'.
The words common to both sentences are 'flowers', 'are' and 'good', and the symbols common to both codes are '#', '3' and '5' -- so this set of symbols stands for this set of words.
Removing the common symbols from Statement I leaves '$'; removing the common words leaves 'really'. By elimination, '$' stands for 'really'.
This elimination needed the leftover symbol from Statement I AND the common-set identification obtained only by comparing it with Statement II.
Statement II alone never mentions the symbol '$' or the word 'really', so it cannot answer the question by itself; Statement I alone gives four codes for four words with no way to tell which symbol is which without the comparison above. So neither statement alone is sufficient, but together they are -- confirming that Both I and II are sufficient.