Q17

[smith.tanika]

Question #17 gives us a hypothetical situation.."if "clean" is the first word..." and so forth.

However, I chose answer A . Can someone explain to me, why E is the correct answer.

Isn't this possible?

5 letters "clean" than we replace c with r and get learn as the second word?

[ohthatpatrick]

Yeah, tricky almost ambiguous meaning with the rules. When they said "replace" a letter, then mean "in the same position".

You're thinking of "replace" a letter as "same total number of letters and only one of the letters used is different".

The problem with that definition is that going from 'clean' to 'learn' could also be seen as removing the 'c' and adding an 'r', which would be two moves, which we know is illegal.

So we can't use that definition of "replace", because it would make the rules internally contradict. Going from 'clean' to 'learn' would simultaneously be a LEGAL way to replace but an ILLEGAL way of removing/adding at the same time.

Hence, we have to interpret 'replace' as 'literally swap out one letter for another, where that original letter sits'.

So since there's no way to go from "clean" to "learn" in one move, (A) and (D) are out.

Could we get there in two moves and make 'third' a possibility?

Sure.
Clean ... lean ... learn

That gets rid of (C).

Can fourth work?
Clean ... lean ... leapn .... learn

That gets rid of (B).

Hope this helps.