Alphabet Test Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The middle letter is B. The letters at the given places are: 2nd B, 5th E, 12th L, 13th M, 15th O, 16th P and 18th R. These seven letters can be arranged into the meaningful word PROBLEM, in which the fourth letter, the middle one of seven, is B. E, O and L are all in the word, but they sit at the 6th, 3rd and 5th places of PROBLEM, not in the middle, so they are not the answer. As a check, P-R-O-B-L-E-M uses exactly the seven chosen letters once each, and a seven-letter word has its fourth letter in the middle, which is B.

Answer: C

The 207th element from the right is J.

Each letter appears as many times as its position from A: Z once, Y twice, and so on, down to A 26 times. Counting from the right means starting with the A block (26 letters), then B (25), C (24) and so on.

\[ \begin{aligned} A{:}\ 26,\ B{:}\ 51,\ C{:}\ 75,\ D{:}\ 98 \\ E{:}\ 120,\ F{:}\ 141,\ G{:}\ 161 \\ H{:}\ 180,\ I{:}\ 198,\ J{:}\ 215 \end{aligned} \]

The running totals show the I block ends at position 198 and the J block (17 letters) covers 199 to 215, so position 207 is a J. H and I are reached by stopping one or two blocks early.

Answer: C

The 261st letter is H.

The series is built in blocks: A, AB, ABC, ABCD, and so on, block n having n letters. After n blocks the length is \(n(n+1)/2\).

\[ \begin{aligned} \frac{22 \times 23}{2} &= 253 \\ 261 - 253 &= 8 \end{aligned} \]

The first 22 blocks fill 253 places, so place 261 is the 8th letter of block 23, which is H. G is an off-by-one from counting 7 places, and D and L come from miscounting the completed blocks.

Answer: D

The letter is X.

The 15th letter from the left of the alphabet is O. Counting 9 letters to its right:

\[ 15 + 9 = 24\text{th letter} = X \]

R, S and T are the 18th, 19th and 20th letters, which would be 3, 4 and 5 places to the right of O.

Answer: D

The word that cannot be formed is KING.

TRAINING contains the letters T, R, A, I (twice), N (twice) and G. GAIN uses G, A, I, N; RAIN uses R, A, I, N; RING uses R, I, N, G, all of which are available.

KING needs the letter K, which does not occur in TRAINING, so it cannot be formed however the other letters are arranged.

Answer: B

The word that cannot be formed is NATIONAL.

The letters of 'Educational' are E, D, U, C, A, T, I, O, N, A, L: the word has two As but only one N. NATIONAL needs two Ns (N-A-T-I-O-N-A-L), so it cannot be formed.

LION uses L, I, O, N; DEAN uses D, E, A, N; and NEAT uses N, E, A, T. Each letter is available in 'Educational' as many times as needed.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 2

Keeping the letters of ASTOUNDER in order and using each only once, two words can be formed: AS from the first two letters, and UNDER from the last five.

The T and O between them are not used, which the question permits - the conditions are that order is preserved and no letter is used twice, not that every letter must appear. A third word would require reusing a letter or reordering.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Shrill

Comparing letter by letter, the alphabetical order of the five words is:

Shrill → Shrine → Shrink → Sight → Signature

The second letter divides them: h before i, so the three Shr- words precede the two Si- ones. Among the Shr- words the fifth letter decides: l, n, n, so Shrill leads, and Shrine then precedes Shrink on the sixth letter, e before k.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Narrate

Comparing letter by letter, the alphabetical order of the five words is:

Narrate → Nascent → Native → Nature → Naughty

All five share Na, so the third letter orders them: r, s, t, t, u. Narrate leads on its r. The two Nat- words then need the fourth letter, where i precedes u, putting Native before Nature.

Answer: D

The new series is :
A  3  C  5  E  7  G  9  I  11  K  13  M
15  O  17  Q  19  S  21  U  23  W  25  Y  27
Counting from the right, the tenth character is Q.
The third character to the right of Q is 21.