Read the below passage carefully and answer the questions: At a small company,…
2024
Read the below passage carefully and answer the questions:
At a small company, parking spaces are reserved for the top executives:
CEO, president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer with the spaces
lined up in that order. The parking lot guard can tell at a glance if
the cars are parked correctly by looking at the color of the cars. The
cars are yellow, green, purple, red, and blue, and the executives names
are Alice, Bert, Cheryl, David, and Enid.
* The car in the first space is red.
* A blue car is parked between the red car and the green car.
* The car in the last space is purple.
* The secretary drives a yellow car.
* Alice's car is parked next to David's.
* Enid drives a green car.
* Bert's car is parked between Cheryl's and Enid's.
* David's car is parked in the last space.
What color is the vice president's car?
- A.
green
- B.
yellow
- C.
blue
- D.
purple
Attempted by 1 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept: In a single-row (linear) arrangement puzzle, first place every clue that fixes an absolute position (first, last); then use the relative clues ("between X and Y") to build the remaining sequence. Each clue must narrow the possibilities until exactly one full arrangement satisfies every constraint.
Application:
The car in space 1 is red (given directly).
The car in space 5 is purple (given directly).
A blue car sits between the red car and the green car. Since red already occupies space 1, blue must be the very next space, space 2, which places green in space 3.
Only one color, yellow, is left unplaced, so it must go in the remaining space, space 4.
The five spaces line up with the executive order CEO, president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, so space 3 belongs to the vice president.
Space 3 is green, so the vice president's car is green.
Cross-check: Re-reading every clue against the final sequence red, blue, green, yellow, purple confirms it: space 1 red matches the first clue; space 5 purple matches the last-space clue; blue in space 2 sits directly between red (space 1) and green (space 3), matching the between-clue; the secretary's yellow car sits in space 4, consistent with the secretary clue. All constraints hold, confirming a unique solution.
Result: The vice president's car is green.
Full arrangement (for completeness): the remaining name clues — Alice's car next to David's, Enid drives green, Bert's car between Cheryl's and Enid's, David's car in the last space — pin every executive to a space, confirming the picture below.
Space | Role | Color | Executive |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | CEO | red | Cheryl |
2 | President | blue | Bert |
3 | Vice President | green | Enid |
4 | Secretary | yellow | Alice |
5 | Treasurer | purple | David |