Pointing to a photograph, a person said, "He is the son of the brother of my…
2024
Pointing to a photograph, a person said, "He is the son of the brother of my mother." Who is the person in the photograph to the one who said this?
- A.
Brother
- B.
Cousin
- C.
Nephew
- D.
Uncle
Attempted by 2 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept: In blood-relation puzzles, a chain phrase is resolved one link at a time, tracking both the generation shift and the gender named at each link — "X's brother" stays in X's own generation, while "Y's son" moves one generation down from Y.
The phrase begins with 'the brother of my mother' — this names the speaker's mother's sibling, i.e., the speaker's maternal uncle. This person is one generation above the speaker, the same generation as the mother.
The phrase then adds 'son of' that person — moving one generation down from the maternal uncle lands back in the speaker's own generation.
A person in the speaker's own generation who descends from the mother's side through her brother is, by definition, the speaker's cousin.
Cross-check: Since the mother and her brother are siblings, their respective children — the speaker and the maternal uncle's son — are automatically cousins to each other; this matches the standard identity 'child of a parent's sibling = cousin,' confirming the result independently of the step-by-step trace above.