Question

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on it.

An employee has been assigned the task of allotting offices to six of the staff members. The offices are numbered 1 to 6. The offices are arranged in a row and they are separated from each other by six foot high dividers. Hence voices, sounds and cigarette smoke flow easily from one office to another.

Miss Ruby needs to use the telephone quite often throughout the day. Mr. Minhas and Mr. Brar need adjacent offices as they need to consult each other often while working. Miss Harsha is a senior employee and has to be allotted office number 5, having the biggest window. Mr. Dongre requires silence in the offices next to his. Mr. Tanjore, Mr. Minhas and Mr. Dongre are all smokers. Miss Harsha finds tobacco smoke allergic and consequently the offices next to hers are to be occupied by non-smokers. Unless specifically stated, all the employees maintain an atmosphere of silence during office hours.

The three employees who are smokers should be seated in the offices:

• A. 1, 2 and 4
• B. 2, 3 and 6
• C. 1, 2 and 6
• D. 1, 2 and 3

Hint:

Use the same seating worked out for the office allotment passage: Dongre, Tanjore and Minhas are the smokers, so note which office numbers they land in.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: List the smokers and non-smokers separately.
Smokers: Tanjore, Minhas, Dongre. Non-smokers: Ruby, Brar, Harsha. There are six offices and six people, three in each group.

Step 2: Pin down the non-smokers' offices first.
Harsha is fixed at office 5. Since her neighbours (4 and 6) must be non-smokers, and only Ruby and Brar are left in that group, they take offices 4 and 6 between them. Testing shows Brar must take 4 (so that Minhas can sit next to him in office 3), which pushes Ruby into office 6.
So the three non-smoker offices are 4, 5 and 6, occupied by Brar, Harsha and Ruby respectively.

Step 3: The smoker offices are simply what is left over.
Since offices 4, 5 and 6 belong to non-smokers, offices 1, 2 and 3 must belong to the three smokers: Dongre, Tanjore and Minhas, with Minhas confirmed in office 3 and Dongre and Tanjore filling 1 and 2.

Step 4: Confirm with the full seating.
1 = Dongre, 2 = Tanjore, 3 = Minhas, 4 = Brar, 5 = Harsha, 6 = Ruby. Offices 1, 2 and 3 are indeed all smokers, and offices 4, 5, 6 are all non-smokers, matching the smoke-allergy rule perfectly.

Final Answer:
The smokers sit in offices 1, 2 and 3. \[ \boxed{1, 2, 3} \]