Q18

[dcfaulcon]

If I am understanding everything correctly I see no reason why A and B both cannot be the correct answer, what am I missing?

[christine.defenbaugh]

Thanks for posting, dcfaulcon!

On any conditional question, we need to first have a clear view of our original setup, then apply the new information we are given into a new sketch. So, our original setup and rules might look something like this:



We know that S and G have a ton of flexibility, except that G is not allowed to be first.

In this question, we're told that J comes before S, which locks up our options quite a bit:


In fact, since G cannot be first, that means that the F/H chunk is going to have to go in spots 1 and 2~



Now, the question says that each of the following could be true EXCEPT - and that means that 4 of the answers could be true, while one will violate the rules. Looking at the diagram above, we can see that G can never go before F, as that would make it first - and that's against the rules! (A) is our rule violator.

It's important to realize here that G still has a TON of flexibility, aside from not being allowed to be first. In (B), we can put G before J like this:


For (C), we can easily achieve this by putting the chunks next to one another and locking them in place:


For (D), we just need to glue J to the K/L chunk, and lock it together in one order:


And for (E), we return back to G's ultimate flexibility:


Only one of the answers was a clear cut rule violator - (A)!

Please let me know if this completely answers your question!