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: tent brick pond kangaroo daisy kitten
Step I: pond tent brick kangaroo daisy kitten
Step II: pond brick tent kangaroo daisy kitten
Step III: pond brick kitten tent kangaroo daisy
Step IV: pond brick kitten kangaroo tent daisy
Step IV is the last step of this input.
Input: mist wire hockey garlic peach cliff
Following the same rule, which of the following will be Step III for this input?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → garlic wire cliff mist hockey peach
Compare each step of the illustration with the one before it. In each step, the word whose last letter comes first in the alphabet, 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: ‘pond’ ends in ‘d’, the earliest last letter among the words left, so it moves to the first place from the left
Step II: ‘brick’ ends in ‘k’, the earliest last letter among the words left, so it moves to the second place from the left
Step III: ‘kitten’ ends in ‘n’, the earliest last letter among the words left, so it moves to the third place from the left
Step IV: ‘kangaroo’ ends in ‘o’, the earliest last letter among the words left, so it moves to the fourth place from the left
After Step IV the words stand in the alphabetical order of their last letters, so the arrangement is complete.
Apply the same rule to the input mist wire hockey garlic peach cliff.
Step I: ‘garlic’ ends in ‘c’, the earliest last letter among the words left, so it moves to the first place from the left, giving garlic mist wire hockey peach cliff
Step II: ‘wire’ ends in ‘e’, the earliest last letter among the words left, so it moves to the second place from the left, giving garlic wire mist hockey peach cliff
Step III: ‘cliff’ ends in ‘f’, the earliest last letter among the words left, so it moves to the third place from the left, giving garlic wire cliff mist hockey peach
So Step III is garlic wire cliff mist hockey peach.
Why the other options are incorrect
Option (1) garlic wire cliff peach mist hockey — Incorrect. This is Step IV, where ‘peach’ has also been moved.
Option (2) garlic wire mist hockey peach cliff — Incorrect. This is Step II; in Step III ‘cliff’ must also move.
Option (4) garlic wire cliff hockey peach mist — Incorrect. Here ‘cliff’ changes places with ‘mist’; the machine moves ‘cliff’ up and the other words keep their order.