Refer to the following letter series and answer the question that follows.…
2026
Refer to the following letter series and answer the question that follows.
Counting to be done from left to right only.
(Left) R N R Y V I F E D H I T O J U E D S A B S I H R S A C (Right)
How many such vowels are there each of which is immediately preceded by a consonant and also immediately followed by a vowel?
Answer: C. One — Concept. In a letter series the five vowels are A, E, I, O and U; every other letter of the alphabet, including Y, counts as a consonant. A condition of the…
- A.
Three
- B.
None
- C.
One
- D.
Two
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Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept. In a letter series the five vowels are A, E, I, O and U; every other letter of the alphabet, including Y, counts as a consonant.
A condition of the form "immediately preceded by X and immediately followed by Y" describes a three-letter window read from left to right — the letter just before the target, the target itself, and the letter just after it. Both halves of the condition must hold in the same window, so the task reduces to finding every occurrence of the pattern consonant → vowel → vowel and counting its middle letter.
Application. Number the given series from left to right:
Position | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Letter | R | N | R | Y | V | I | F | E | D | H | I | T | O | J | U | E | D | S | A | B | S | I | H | R | S | A | C |
The vowels sit at positions 6 (I), 8 (E), 11 (I), 13 (O), 15 (U), 16 (E), 19 (A), 22 (I) and 26 (A). Test each vowel’s window in turn:
I at position 6: preceded by V, a consonant; followed by F, a consonant. The "followed by a vowel" half fails.
E at position 8: preceded by F, a consonant; followed by D, a consonant. The "followed by a vowel" half fails.
I at position 11: preceded by H, a consonant; followed by T, a consonant. The "followed by a vowel" half fails.
O at position 13: preceded by T, a consonant; followed by J, a consonant. The "followed by a vowel" half fails.
U at position 15: preceded by J, a consonant; followed by E, a vowel. Both halves hold, giving the window J–U–E.
E at position 16: preceded by U, which is a vowel. The "preceded by a consonant" half fails.
A at position 19: preceded by S, a consonant; followed by B, a consonant. The "followed by a vowel" half fails.
I at position 22: preceded by S, a consonant; followed by H, a consonant. The "followed by a vowel" half fails.
A at position 26: preceded by S, a consonant; followed by C, a consonant. The "followed by a vowel" half fails.
Exactly one window, J–U–E, satisfies both halves of the condition, so the required count is one.
Cross-check. Work the same series from the opposite direction to confirm the count:
The pattern needs the target vowel and its right neighbour to be adjacent vowels, so first list every vowel–vowel pair in the series. Scanning positions 1 to 27, the only place where two vowels stand side by side is U–E at positions 15 and 16.
That pair has J, a consonant, immediately to its left, so it does produce a valid window; and because no other adjacent vowel pair exists, no second window is possible. Both routes give the same total.
Y at position 4 is a consonant under the standard convention. It is not adjacent to any vowel pair here, so the total is the same whichever convention is used for Y.