Each of the following questions consists of five figures marked A, B, C, D and…
2024
Each of the following questions consists of five figures marked A, B, C, D and E, called the Problem Figures, followed by five other figures marked 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, called the Answer Figures. Select the figure from among the Answer Figures that continues the same series established by the five Problem Figures.
Problem Figures: Answer Figures:
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
- A.
1
- B.
2
- C.
3
- D.
4
- E.
5
Attempted by 45 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept: In a moving-figure series, two things typically change together across the Problem Figures: the POSITION of a marked shape as it cycles around the four corners of the frame, and the shaded section inside that shape. Each is worked out separately from the given figures and then carried forward into the missing (sixth) figure.
The larger eight-spoke square occupies the bottom-right corner in Figure A, the top-right corner in Figure B, the top-left corner in Figure C, the bottom-left corner in Figure D, and returns to the bottom-right corner in Figure E — a four-step cycle around the frame that repeats every four figures.
The smaller plain eight-spoke square always sits in the corner diagonally opposite the larger square, so its position is fixed once the larger square's corner is known.
Since the corner cycle has period 4 and Figure E repeats the corner used in Figure A, the sixth (missing) figure must repeat the corner used in Figure B: the larger square in the top-right corner and the smaller square in the bottom-left corner.
Inside the larger square, one of the eight triangular sections formed by the vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines is shaded. Matching this shaded section figure-by-figure shows Figure B repeats the exact same shaded section as Figure A, while Figures C and D each shade a different section — so the sixth figure's shading is fixed by finding which earlier Problem Figure used the same corner it needs, and reproducing that figure's shaded section exactly.
Since the sixth figure needs the corner used in Figure B (top-right), it must also reproduce Figure B's own shaded section exactly.
Cross-check: Checking the five Answer Figures, only Figure 1 shades the exact same section as Figure B while also placing the larger square in the correct top-right corner; Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5 all place the larger square in that same correct corner but each shades a different section than Figure B, so none of them reproduces the needed figure.