Question

In a certain code language, '3a, 2b, 7c' means 'Truth is Eternal', '7c, 9a, 8b, 3a' means 'Enmity is not Eternal' and '9a, 4d, 2b, 8b' means 'Truth does not perish'. Which of the following means 'Enmity' in that language?

• A. 3a
• B. 7c
• C. 8b
• D. 9a

Hint:

Cancel out the codes shared by sentences that have 'is' and 'Eternal' or 'Truth' in common, to isolate 'Enmity'.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Instead of pinning down every code, focus only on isolating the code for "Enmity" using elimination.

1. Compare sentence 1 and sentence 2: "Truth is Eternal" = 3a, 2b, 7c and "Enmity is not Eternal" = 7c, 9a, 8b, 3a. The shared words are "is" and "Eternal", so the shared codes 3a and 7c must be these two words, leaving 9a and 8b as the codes for "Enmity" and "not" in sentence 2.
2. Compare sentence 1 and sentence 3: "Truth is Eternal" and "Truth does not perish" = 9a, 4d, 2b, 8b share only the word "Truth", so the one shared code, 2b, must be "Truth".
3. Compare sentence 2 and sentence 3: these two sentences share only the word "not", and the code 9a from sentence 2's leftover pair also shows up in sentence 3, so 9a is "not".
4. Finish by elimination: with 3a, 7c, 2b and 9a all assigned to is/Eternal/Truth/not, the one code from sentence 2 still unassigned is 8b, and the one word from sentence 2 still unassigned is "Enmity".

So "Enmity" is coded as 8b, which is option C. \[ \boxed{8b} \]