Each vowel in the word AWAITING is changed to the letter immediately preceding…
2026
Each vowel in the word AWAITING is changed to the letter immediately preceding it in the English alphabetical order, and each consonant is changed to the letter immediately following it in the English alphabetical order. For these shifts the alphabet is treated as cyclic, so a shift that runs past either end of the alphabet continues from the other end. Which of the following letters will appear exactly twice in the new group of letters thus formed?
Answer: B. Z — Concept — In a letter-substitution code, every letter of a word is replaced by another letter using a rule that depends on the class of that letter. Here…
- A.
X
- B.
Z
- C.
H
- D.
U
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Correct answer: B
Concept — In a letter-substitution code, every letter of a word is replaced by another letter using a rule that depends on the class of that letter. Here vowels (A, E, I, O, U) move one step backward in the alphabet and consonants move one step forward, and the alphabet is read cyclically, so the letter before A is Z and the letter after Z is A. A question about how many times a letter appears is therefore a two-part task: first build the complete image of the word, then tally the letters of that image. Answering from a partial scan is the usual source of error.
Applying it here — AWAITING has eight letters. Classify each letter and shift it accordingly:
Letter | Class | Shift | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
A | vowel | one step back | Z |
W | consonant | one step forward | X |
A | vowel | one step back | Z |
I | vowel | one step back | H |
T | consonant | one step forward | U |
I | vowel | one step back | H |
N | consonant | one step forward | O |
G | consonant | one step forward | H |
Reading the images in the same order gives the new group Z X Z H U H O H, which has eight letters, matching the eight letters of AWAITING.
Tally —
Z occurs 2 times, from the two A's.
X occurs 1 time, from W.
H occurs 3 times, from the two I's and from G.
U occurs 1 time, from T.
O occurs 1 time, from N.
Cross-check — The counts add up to 2 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 8, so no letter has been missed or counted twice. The question asks for a letter appearing exactly twice, so a letter appearing three times does not qualify. Only Z has a count of exactly 2, so the required letter is Z.