Directions: The question below, consist of a question and three statements…
2023
Directions: The question below, consist of a question and three statements numbered as I, II and III given below it. You have to decide whether the data given in the statements are sufficient to answer the question or not. Read all statements and choose the most appropriate option.
Q. What is the code of town?
I. “town is clean” is coded as “mp wy hz”, “small area city” is coded as “rt mh ap” and “town is good” is coded as “hz aw wy”
II. “town is authentic” is coded as “wy ap hz”, “every city worth” is coded as “mt rt ng” and “no best city” is coded as “ax nr rt”
III. “town is best” is coded as “wy nf hz”, “best small city” is coded as “rt sk ax” and “level in city” is coded as “wr rt uc”
- A.
If data in statement I alone is sufficient
- B.
If data in statement III alone is sufficient
- C.
If data either in statement I alone or in statement III alone is sufficient
- D.
If data in all statements i.e., I, II and III even together is not sufficient
- E.
If data in all statements i.e., I, II and III together is sufficient
Attempted by 5 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept
In a coding-decoding data-sufficiency puzzle, a word's code is found only when that word can be isolated: you need two or more given phrases whose ONLY common word is the target word, so its code is the ONLY code those phrases share. If a target word never appears apart from a fixed companion word, the two share the same pair of codes and neither can be pinned to a single code. A statement (or a set of statements) is sufficient only when it forces a unique code for the asked word.
Application
We are asked for the code of town. Track every phrase that contains “town”:
“town is clean” → mp wy hz, and “town is good” → hz aw wy. These two share the words town and is, and share the codes wy and hz. So {town, is} = {wy, hz}; clean = mp, good = aw. But town and is cannot be told apart — each could be wy or hz.
“town is authentic” → wy ap hz: again wy and hz appear with town/is (authentic = ap). No new way to separate town from is.
“town is best” → wy nf hz: once more wy and hz sit with town/is (best = nf). Still no separation.
In every single phrase that contains “town”, the word “is” is also present, and the codes wy and hz always travel together. No phrase anywhere contains “town” without “is” (or “is” without “town”), so there is no phrase that can break the {wy, hz} pair apart.
Cross-check
Try to use any other phrase to fix “is” (and thereby town) on its own: none of “small area city”, “every city worth”, “no best city”, “best small city” or “level in city” contains town or is. So they cannot resolve the wy/hz tie either. The code of town stays {wy or hz} no matter how many statements you combine.
Result: The code of town can only be narrowed to “wy or hz”, never to one value — so even all three statements taken together are not sufficient.