Direction : Study the following information carefully to answer the questions.…
2024
Direction : Study the following information carefully to answer the questions.
Five persons - M, N, O, P and Q have five different ships - A, B, C, D and E docked at five different ports - R, S, T, U, and V. All the information is not necessarily in the same order.
N doesn’t have Ship B and Ship E. Ship B is not docked at Port S and Port U. Q doesn’t dock the ship in Port S and Port R. O doesn’t dock in the ship in Port S, Port U and Port V. M, O and P doesn’t have ship E. Ship D and ship E is not docked at Port U. P doesn’t have ship C and ship B. P doesn’t dock the ship at Port U and Port V. The person whose ship is docked at Port R doesn’t have Ship C and A. P doesn’t dock the ship at Port R and Port S. M doesn’t dock the ship at Port S. The person whose ship is docked at Port S and Port U doesn’t have ship D. The person whose ship is docked at Port S doesn’t have Ship A. The person whose ship is docked at Port T doesn’t have Ship D. Port R doesn’t have Ship B docked.
Which of the following statement is/are false?
I. O docked the ship at Port R.
II. N has Ship C.
III. Ship A is docked at Port S.
- A.
Only II
- B.
Only III
- C.
Both II and III
- D.
Both I and II
- E.
Only I
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept
This is a constraint-satisfaction (matching) puzzle. Each negative clue removes possibilities; when only one valid value remains for a person, ship or port, that placement is forced. A given statement is FALSE exactly when it contradicts what the clues force — and a single direct clue is sometimes enough to settle a statement without completing the whole grid.
Application — what the clues force
Ship E: N, M, O and P are all barred from Ship E, so Ship E must belong to Q.
Port S: M, O, P and Q are each barred from Port S, so Port S is N's port.
Ship at Port S: it cannot be A (Port-S clue), cannot be D (S/U clue), cannot be B (Ship B not at S), and E is with Q. So the ship at Port S is C — therefore N has Ship C.
Port R: the ship there cannot be A, C or B, and E is with Q (who is not at R). So Port R carries Ship D, and the person who fits Port R with Ship D is O — so O docks at Port R.
The remaining persons and ships (M, P with Ships A, B over the remaining ports T, U, V) fill in consistently, e.g. M with Ship A at Port U, P with Ship B at Port T, Q with Ship E at Port V.
Completed grid
Person | Ship | Port |
|---|---|---|
N | C | S |
O | D | R |
M | A | U |
P | B | T |
Q | E | V |
Testing the three statements
Statement I — “O docked the ship at Port R”: the elimination at Port R forces O there, so this is TRUE.
Statement II — “N has Ship C”: the elimination at Port S forces Ship C onto N, so this is TRUE.
Statement III — “Ship A is docked at Port S”: the clue “the person whose ship is at Port S doesn’t have Ship A” directly forbids Ship A at Port S (and Port S actually carries Ship C). So this is FALSE on its own, regardless of the rest of the grid.
Result
Statements I and II are true and statement III is false, so exactly one of the three statements is false: only statement III.