Rearrange the parts of the sentence in the correct order: "Gone are the days P - about foreign trade and payments, Q - and not really worried, R - when we could think of ourselves as a closed economy." Choose the correct sequence.

Introduction / Context:
This sentence rearrangement question deals with economic terminology and logical flow. The sentence contrasts past and present attitudes towards foreign trade and payments, starting with the phrase "Gone are the days". Your task is to choose the order of the parts P, Q, and R that produces a grammatically correct and meaningful sentence.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Starter: "Gone are the days"
• P: "about foreign trade and payments"
• Q: "and not really worried"
• R: "when we could think of ourselves as a closed economy"
• The sentence must describe a period when the country considered itself a closed economy and paid little attention to foreign trade.

Concept / Approach:
We need to construct a logical clause that follows "Gone are the days". The phrase "when we could think of ourselves as a closed economy" clearly introduces the time reference for those days. After that, the sentence should mention our attitude, "and not really worried", and then the object of that attitude, "about foreign trade and payments". We must preserve natural word order and connectives like "and" correctly.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Identify the part that best follows "Gone are the days". The phrase "when we could think of ourselves as a closed economy" (R) fits naturally because it describes what those days were like. Step 2: After R, we expect a description of the accompanying attitude, which is "and not really worried" (Q). It connects logically with the preceding clause. Step 3: Finally, we need to specify what we were not worried about, which is "about foreign trade and payments" (P). Step 4: Combine them: "Gone are the days when we could think of ourselves as a closed economy and not really worried about foreign trade and payments." Step 5: This corresponds to the sequence R Q P, which is option (B) RQP.

Verification / Alternative check:
Check the alternative sequences: P R Q: "Gone are the days about foreign trade and payments when we could think of ourselves as a closed economy and not really worried" is grammatically incorrect because "Gone are the days about foreign trade" is not a natural phrase. Q R P: "Gone are the days and not really worried when we could think of ourselves as a closed economy about foreign trade and payments" is disjointed and misuses "and". P Q R or Q P R create similar structural problems and do not read smoothly. Only R Q P yields a coherent statement about earlier closed economy thinking and lack of concern over foreign trade.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option (A) QRP begins with "and not really worried", which cannot directly follow "Gone are the days". Option (C) PRQ makes "Gone are the days about foreign trade and payments", a phrase that is not idiomatic English. Option (D) PQR has the same flaw by starting with the prepositional phrase "about foreign trade and payments" in the wrong place.

Common Pitfalls:
Candidates sometimes focus only on local grammatical correctness between two adjacent fragments and ignore the overall sentence. It helps to first choose the fragment that naturally follows the starter phrase "Gone are the days". Phrase R clearly introduces the time clause starting with "when", which is commonly used in such constructions. Once you place R correctly, it becomes easier to see that Q expresses a mental state and P finishes the idea by specifying the object of that state.

Final Answer:
The correct sequence is RQP, giving: "Gone are the days when we could think of ourselves as a closed economy and not really worried about foreign trade and payments."