Q5

[ShehryarB30]

I am confused about this answer since I choose E as my answer while A was the correct answer. Could you please guide me how?

[ohthatpatrick]

Sure thing! Sorry for the delayed response.

Sometimes you can "game" these fully determined questions by looking for an answer that would
1. pin down a 'floater'
or
2. talk about someone really important, who's connected to other rules

But mainly it's just plug and chug.
As soon as you think you have flexibility in a scenario, bail and move onto the next answer choice.
The correct answer choice should keep the inference chain going from start to finished diagram.

(A) starts us with
__ __ I
__ __

Any rules for I? Yes, if they're in the same segment, we have to do I - W.
Since I is last, we can't have W in that segment, so W is in the 2nd one.

__ __ I
__ __ (W)

We know that S is always last for either first or second segment, so since I has claimed the last spot in the first segment, S will have to claim the last segment of the second segment.

__ __ I
__ S (W)

That means that W is the first spot.

__ __ I
W S

Who's left? N and T, and there's a rule that says N is always first in its segment, so we'd have to finish it off
N T I
W S

Pretty tricky! That's the correct answer. Let's look at the flexibility in the other answers.
(B) N is first in the first. Well, we could even look at the scenario we just did and find flexibility with N being first.

N (T, I)
W S

T and I could switch positions and it wouldn't hurt anything, so (B) did not fully determine everyone.

(C) N is first in the second.
__ __ __
N __

Since we know we need a local in each segment, the other general, I, will have to be in the first segment.
__ __ __ (I)
N __

Do we know whether S is last in the first or the second segment? Could be either.
Do we know whether it's I - W in the first or W in the second? Could be either.
Flexibility = eliminate.

(D) With S as the last spot of second segment, we could go back to our scenario for (B) and see flexibility:
N (T, I)
W S

Again, T and I are interchangeable there, so S being last in the 2nd doesn't fully determine.

(E) W is last in the 1st.
__ __ W
__ __

This immediately means that S has to be last in the 2nd.
__ __ W
__ S

At this point, do we know whether N is first in the 1st or 2nd? Either one.
Is it I - W in this 1st, or is I in the 2nd? Could be either one.

So we have flexibility.
N T W
I S
vs.
I T W
N S
for instance.


Hope this helps!