Difficulty: Medium
Correct Answer: REHPANT
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
This coding decoding problem involves rearranging letters in a specific pattern. You are told that BISLERI becomes IREBISL in the code language and must use the same rearrangement to encode PANTHER. The trick is to understand the positional rearrangement rather than a simple alphabet shift.
Given Data / Assumptions:
Concept / Approach:
Write down the original and coded words, align them and track which original letter ends up in which coded position. That mapping of indices can then be applied to a new word with the same length. BISLERI and PANTHER both have seven letters, so the same index mapping should work perfectly for both.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: List BISLERI as positions: 1 B, 2 I, 3 S, 4 L, 5 E, 6 R, 7 I.Step 2: List the coded word IREBISL: positions: 1 I, 2 R, 3 E, 4 B, 5 I, 6 S, 7 L.Step 3: Map coded positions back to original: coded1 (I) comes from original7, coded2 (R) from original6, coded3 (E) from original5, coded4 (B) from original1, coded5 (I) from original2, coded6 (S) from original3, coded7 (L) from original4.Step 4: So the pattern is: [7, 6, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4]. The coded word takes letters in the order 7th, 6th, 5th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.Step 5: Now write PANTHER as positions: 1 P, 2 A, 3 N, 4 T, 5 H, 6 E, 7 R.Step 6: Apply the same index order: 7th → R, 6th → E, 5th → H, 1st → P, 2nd → A, 3rd → N, 4th → T.Step 7: Therefore PANTHER is coded as REHPANT.
Verification / Alternative check:
Re applying the pattern to BISLERI verifies that we reconstruct IREBISL correctly, so the index mapping is accurate. Because PANTHER has the same length, using the identical sequence of positions must produce the correct coded form. The result REHPANT matches exactly one of the answer choices, which confirms that the pattern has been applied correctly.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes try to guess a visual pattern without explicitly mapping positions, which easily leads to mistakes. Another trap is to assume the word was simply reversed, but BISLERI reversed would be IRELSIB, not IREBISL. Hence precise index mapping is essential for a correct solution.
Final Answer:
Using the same positional rearrangement, PANTHER is written as REHPANT.
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