A word arrangement machine, when given an input line of words, rearranges them step by step following a particular rule. An illustration of an input and its rearrangement is given below.
Input: mango kite apple tiger lamp drum
Step I: apple mango kite tiger lamp drum
Step II: apple drum mango kite tiger lamp
Step III: apple drum kite mango tiger lamp
Step IV: apple drum kite lamp mango tiger
Step IV is the last step of this input.
Input: rope cart nest bowl lion fork
Following the same rule, which of the following will be Step III for this input?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → bowl cart fork rope nest lion
Compare each step of the illustration with the one before it. In each step, the word that comes first in dictionary order among the words not yet arranged moves to the next place from the left end, and all the other words keep their order.
Step I: ‘apple’ comes first in dictionary order, so it moves to the first place from the left
Step II: ‘drum’ comes first in dictionary order, so it moves to the second place from the left
Step III: ‘kite’ comes first in dictionary order, so it moves to the third place from the left
Step IV: ‘lamp’ comes first in dictionary order, so it moves to the fourth place from the left
After Step IV the words stand in dictionary order, so the arrangement is complete.
Apply the same rule to the input rope cart nest bowl lion fork.
Step I: ‘bowl’ comes first in dictionary order, so it moves to the first place from the left, giving bowl rope cart nest lion fork
Step II: ‘cart’ comes first in dictionary order, so it moves to the second place from the left, giving bowl cart rope nest lion fork
Step III: ‘fork’ comes first in dictionary order, so it moves to the third place from the left, giving bowl cart fork rope nest lion
So Step III is bowl cart fork rope nest lion.
Why the other options are incorrect
Option (1) bowl cart rope nest lion fork — Incorrect. This is Step II; in Step III ‘fork’ must also move up.
Option (3) bowl cart fork lion rope nest — Incorrect. This is Step IV, where ‘lion’ has also been moved.
Option (4) bowl cart fork nest lion rope — Incorrect. Here ‘fork’ changes places with ‘rope’; the machine moves the word up and the other words keep their order.