TEST OF REASONING ABILITY VERBAL REASONING SERIES A sequence of several terms is known as series. Each unit of a sequence or series is called a term ‘or an element. All terms in a series follow a certain pattern throughout the sequence. Each term in the series is important because there exists a certain relationship between two consecutive terms. Several types of questions are asked on series in competitive examinations. There are two types of series. The questions based on the English Alphabet series are somewhat easy because one can remember the position of each alphabet easily. eg ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (Find the eighteenth letter in the above alphabet series. The 18th letter counting from the left end is 'R’ (ii) Find the tonth letter from the right. When we count from the right to the left, the tenth letter is“ This is an example of simple series and questions on this are relatively simple. Mixed Series - It consists of letters, numbers and symbols. Unlike the English alphabet series, the number of elements in mixed series is not fixed. It can have any number of elements like 24, 25, 26, 28 or even more. Questions on series judge how quickly one can identify the relationship between the given elements. To solve questions on this, a lot of practice is required because there are hardly any short cuts to solve them. Questions:on\series can be classified into two types. (1) Questions on series consisting of letters and numbers. TGL8AVEREMISUZDSW75FJBYQ21K e.g. If the question is to find which letterinumber is fourth to the left of the 16th letter/number from your left - First find the 16th letter/number fromthe left, which, in this case, is ‘S’ and the fourth letter! number to the left of ‘S’ is ‘3’. In short you are asked to find out 16 — 4 = 12th letter/number from left (2) Questions on series consisting of letters, numbers and symbols, The series is made more complicated by including letters, numbers and symbols in it e.g. Study the following series of letters, numbers and symbols. NR<2AF3@ULMZP>QS4RTIGKLHES9B+S Different types of questions based on this series can be asked. e.g. If the first thirteen elements are written in the reverse order, which letter/number/symbol will be the sixth to the left of the twelfth letter/number/symbol from your right ? Solution : Whemthesfirst thirteen elements are written in the reverse order, the sequence is as follows. PZML@3FA2QS54RTIGKLHES9B+S The twelfth letter from the left is ‘N’ and the sixth element to the left of ‘N’ is 3. Remember the important points given below when solving questions on series. (1) Quickly count the total number of terms in the given series. (2)pLocate the middle term if any. (3) Write down the total number of letters, numbers and symbols respectively. Illustrative Questions Directions :- 1 to § : Study the following letter-number-symbol series and answer the questions that follow :- KD4*NTZ#<6P @SMA2$1VCR>9E 1161.3) 2.(4) 3.(2) If the first five elements and the last ten elements are written in the reverse order, which of the following will be the seventh element to the right of the eleventh element from your left ? (= (2)2 (3) 8 (4) E (5) None of these Which of the following elements would be exactly midway between the ninth element from the left and the eleventh element from the right ? aM (2) P (3) 5 “@ (5) None of these Four of the following five are alike with respect to their positions in the above'series and hence form a group. Which one does not belong to the group 7 (ote. (@)Pp2c (ssc @T65 @ye2v What should come in place of the question mark (?) in the following Sefies’on the basis of the above sequence ? N#AZ@S, <2V,PCR, ? (Mes 2) 5e9 3) @ > (4) 2>9) (5) None of these Which of the following elements would be fourth to the right of,'M’, if all the elements after ‘M’ are written in the reverse order ? (= Qe (3) > av (8) None of these Key Illustr: uestions 1to 5: Reference :- KD 4*NTZ#<6P @SMB2S1VCR>9E- 2 When the first five elements and the last ten.elements are written in the reverse order, the sequence would be as follows :- N*4DKTZ#<6P@5MA-E9>RCVIS2 The 11th element from the leftsis 'P’ and the seventh element to the right of P is ‘9! 2 The 9th element from thé'leftis < and the 11th element from the right is A. So, the element midway between < and A is°@" p2c. 44 43 >D—>7> < 45 +4 Pp 2 c +4 43 5 s c 44 43 T 6 8 44 43 @ 2 v As can be seen, P2C does not belong to the group. 117BLOOD RELATIONSHIP In these types of questions, a roundabout complicated description is given in the form of certain small relationships and direct relationship between the person concerned is to be found out. For this, one needs to have knowledge of blood relations and you should try to analyse the given statements systematically and carefully, e.g. My mother’s only child means myself. Jaya’s husband's father-in-law's only daughter means Jaya (herself). While solving these:questions, read carefully the given information in the question. Keep your personal biases and preconceived notions aside and solve these questions by any of the following two methods. 1) Deductive method or 2) Pictorial method Deductive method :- In solving problems on blood-relationship, translation. of the given information to one’s own mother tongue and substituting unknown relationships with one's own kith and kin a very useful strategy. Pictorial method :- Certain problems demand the knowledge of representing the given statement(s) in the form of a diagram/chart. In drawing the diagram/chart, there are no hard and fast fules. You can use your own symbols to depict the information, but give no room for ambiguity. Generally we can draw a diagram similar to the ‘Traditional Family Tree’ as used in history books/and genealogies. To be clear about the gender, we use ‘m’ for ‘male’ and ‘f' for ‘female’ and)'x’, 'y’, ‘2’ ete for unknown. One important aspect is that a diagram should always clearly depict the ‘generation’, hence ‘Horizontal lines’ are drawn to indicate martiage;"vertical lines indicate children; broken lines for sibling relationship. Moreover, one has to take care of not to misrepresent the data, while drawing the diagram, A-tow generally used notation: —— = marriage relationship = sibling relationship Lor for \ = children m = male, M = mother f= female, F = Father Remember the important points given below :- (1) After you have réad the question, identify the two persons between whom relationship is to be established. (2) Try to Gorrelate the given relationships. (3) While concluding about the relationship between the two persons; be careful about the genders of the persons involved. Various types of questions on Blood relationship are asked. There is no substantial difference in them, except the pattern of questions. 135The following summary of some common Blood relationships will be useful to the students :- Relation Commonly used terms Mother's or father’s brother Uncle Mother's or father’s sister Aunt Mother's or father's father Grandfather Mother's or father’s Mother Grandmother ‘Son's wife Daughter-in-law Daughter's husband ‘Son-intaw Husband's or wife's sister Sisterinaw Husband's or wife's brother Brother-in-iaw Brother's or sister's son Nephew. Brother's or sister's daughter Niece Unele’s or aunt's son or daughter Cotisir Sister's husband Brother-in-law Brother's wife Sisterindaw Grand son's or grand daughter's daughter Great granddaughter Grand son's or grand daughter's son Great grandson Mlustrative Questions It ‘A + B! means ‘A is the mother of BY"A B’ means ‘A is the brother of B’; ‘A x B’ means ‘Ais the son of B’; and ‘A - B’ means.Aiis the sister of B’, then find the relation of the following equation. c-PsD=? (1) Cis the sister of P and the mother of D (2) Cis the sister of P and D (3) Cis the brother of D.who is sister of D (4) Cis the mother of P and D (5) None of these ‘A man said to a woman, “Your only brother's son is my wife’s brother’, How is the woman related to the man’s wife ? (1) Sister (2) Mother-in-law (3) Aunt (4) Sister-inelaw (5) None of these Dirsetiofis.: 3 to 5 : Study the following information, and answer the questions that follow :- There are six persons P, Q, R, S, T and U in a family. R is the sister of U. Q is the brother of ‘T's husband, $ is the father of P and grandfather of U, There are two fathers, three brothers and a mother in the group. Name the group of brothers Mars (2), a,T (3) Q, PU (4) PL RS (5) SP. U 136complete rearrangement has been done. Then the second last word moves to the second position and remains there. Then the third element from the last moves to the third position from the start and so on. A BC DE F FAB C DE Step I FE A B CD Step Ill FE DA BC Step IV FE DCA B Step V FE DcBA This is the last step. Input cat bird step pick pet drum Step | drum cat bird step pick pet Step Il drum pet cat bird step pick Step Ill drum pet pick cat bird step Step IV drum pet pick step cat bird Step V drum pet pick step bird cat This is the last step. ii) Central inverse order :- The given input is divided into two groups and each successive step is obtained by rearranging the elements of each group. The last word of the first part moves to the first position of the first part. The remaining two words in the first part interchange their position in the next step. The same sequence of events is continued for the next halt eg Letter-bs - Input A B CODE F Step | c A BD E F Step Il c BOA ’D E& F Step Ill c BA F DE Step IV C oBhwA FE D This is the last step, Here the two. groups consisting of the first three and the last three letters are formed and the rearrangement takes place among themselves, Word-based = Input cat bird step pick pet drum Step I step cat bird pick pet drum Step Il step bird cat pick pet drum Step Ill step bird cat drum pick pet Step IV step bird cat drum pet pick This Is the last step. 185BINARY NUMBERS AND LETTER-NUMBER CODE In our daily life, we see electronic calculators, computers that perform basic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We are familiar with only one number system, particularly known as the ‘Decimal Number System’. But there are several other number systems also. Binary number system is one of them, Decimal Number System :- This number system is used daily in our everyday life. In this system, the numbers are represented by using ten digits. The base in this number system is ‘10’ e.g. 475 Here we say ‘S’ is at unit's place and ‘7’ is at ten’s place and ‘4’ is at hundred’s place. So the values are : 4x 108 +7 x 10" + 5 x 10° 400 +70 +5 475 Binary Number System :- This number system is called binary number system as there are only two symbols or digits which are used in this number system. The base in this number system is ‘2’. The symbols are ‘0' and ‘1’ in this and the meaning associated with these symbols is the same as in the decimal number system. Analogous to the unit's placeyten’s place, hundred’s place and soon in the decimal system, in the binary system, we have the unit's place, two's place, four's place, eight’s place and so on. The following table gives the place value chart in the binary system 24 2 | 2 | 4 2 |e 2 | 16 2 | 32 2 | 64 2 | 128 Thus, from the above, it is lear that place values are obtained by taking powers of 2 as 2° = 1, 2' = 2, 2° = 4, 2° = 8 and so on, which we use effectively in the coding decoding model. Coming to these particular questions ih competitive examinations, instead of using ‘O' and ‘1’ as itis done in the Binary System, coded Symbols (‘$’ for ‘0’ and ‘@" for ‘t’) are used. Hence, to solve the same, we use the place value chart of the Binary System, duly replacing “@" for ‘1’ and ‘S$’ for ‘0’ Conversion of binary to dec! For this conversion, count the number of binary digits from the right to the left. The rightmost binary digit is decoded by multiplying by 2° to it. The power of 2 is successively raised by one as you proceed.from the right to the left. For example, '@ @@$$@" would be decoded as, BEDE ® + (2* x 0) + (2' x 0) + 2° 2 G24 164+ 8+0+0+1=57 Note :- Always remember that an odd decimal number converted to its binary counterpart has ‘1’ at the right end and an even decimal number converted to its binary counter part has ‘0’ at the right end 228Zero at the extreme left position does not have any value in the binary number system, like in the decimal number system. Conversion of decimal to binary :- There are several methods to convert decimal numbers to the binary. The easiest among them is Comparison Subtraction Method given below. The Comparison Subtraction Method ;- The highest power of ‘2’, which is less than the given number is subtracted from th given number. The remainder is again compared with powers of '2’. Once again, the highest power of ‘2’ that is less than the remainder, is subtracted from the remainder. The same procedure is repeated till the remainder is zero, The highest power of ‘2’ that is subtracted repeatedly.aresgroups to get the required binary number. For example :- Let us convert 273 into its binary equivalent by using the Comparison Subtraction Method. The highest power of 2 contained in 273 is 2 = 256 which is less than.273, thus giving a difference 273 — 256 = 17. The highest power of 2 contained in 17 is 2° =16, thus giving a difference of 17 ~ 16 = 1, which is 2° 273 = 2564 16 + 1 = 24 24 2 Conversion of 273 to its binary form is done in the following way = 1x4 Ox 24 Ox 2+ Ox D+ 1x 240027 Ox 2+ Ox2 41x 2° 100010001 Mustrativ tion Directions :- 1 to § : Read the following information and answer the questions that follow :- In a certain code language, the symbol(for 10’ is ‘#’ and for ‘1’ is ‘$', There are no other symbols for numbers greater than one, The numbers greater than one are to be written only by using the two symbols given above, The value Of symbol for ‘1’ doubles itself everytime it shifts one place to the left. Study the following examples :- 0 is written as #, 1 is written as $, 2 is written as $#, 3 is written as $$, 4 is written as $## and”So on. Which of the following will represent 14 ? (1) ss#s. (2), $#8$ (3) sss# (4) 84s. (5) None of these Which of the*following number will be represented by $$#8$ 7 (1) 27 (2) 28 (3) 29 (4) 10 (5) 8 Witich of the following number will be represented by the value of (S$ x $#) 7 (es (2) 12 (3) 8 (4) 20 (5) 6 Which of the following will represent the value of (3 x 2 + 5) 7 (1) $848, (2) sass (3) #888 (4) Sass (8) None of these Which of the following will represent the value of ($#S x $## = S#) 7 (1) sss# (2) #S#s (3) Sst (4) Sas (5) None of these 2261.43) 2.(1) 3.(8) 4.(2) 5.(3) B42 42+ (0x 2") 8+4+240 = S8SH. 22. SsHss = 24 2+ (0 x 2%) + 2 + 2° 16+8+0+241 = 27. 242° =2+1=3 SH = 2) + (0 x 2°) =2+0=2 (S$ x $#) = 3x2 = 6 ‘sass. (ax2+5) = (6 +5) =u 11 can be written in the binary form as follows 2 + (0 x 24) + 2! + 2 B+O0+241 HSS. suse. SHS = 2? + (0 x 2!) + 2° =440+1-5 su = 2 + (0x 2!) + (0% 2) 4+0+0 =4 st (0 x 2%) 2+ 2+0 2 (SS x SHR SH) = (6x 4+2) (5 x 2) =10 10 can be written in the binary form as follows : = 2 +042) + (0x 2") B+0+2+0 = SHSH. 227