How many total days are there in four consecutive years in the Gregorian calendar, assuming that exactly one of the years is a leap year with 366 days and the remaining three years are ordinary years with 365 days each?

Introduction / Context:
This problem is a basic calendar aptitude question that checks whether you understand how many days occur in ordinary years and leap years, and how these combine when we look at a block of consecutive years. Such questions are common in competitive exams because they build the foundation for more advanced calendar and day of week problems.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• We are considering four consecutive years in the Gregorian calendar.
• An ordinary year has 365 days.
• A leap year has 366 days.
• In a normal cycle of four consecutive years there is exactly one leap year and three ordinary years, ignoring rare century exceptions for this level of question.

Concept / Approach:
The idea is to split the total days into contributions from ordinary years and the leap year. Once we know how many of each type occur in the four year block, we simply add their respective day counts. This uses only simple multiplication and addition, but it is important not to miscount the number of leap years in the given range.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: In four consecutive years, assume there are three ordinary years and one leap year. Step 2: Each ordinary year has 365 days, so days in ordinary years = 3 * 365. Step 3: Calculate 3 * 365 = 1095 days. Step 4: A leap year has 366 days, so days in the leap year = 366. Step 5: Add them to get the total days in four years = 1095 + 366. Step 6: Compute 1095 + 366 = 1461 days.

Verification / Alternative check:
Another way is to use average length of a year. Over a long period, average days per year in the Gregorian calendar is close to 365.25. If we multiply 365.25 * 4, we get 1461, which confirms the same result. This matches the direct calculation using three ordinary years and one leap year.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
1460 is too small because it assumes exactly 365 days for every year, ignoring the leap year. 1462 is too large and would correspond to two leap years in four consecutive years, which is not typical. 1459 is even smaller and clearly does not fit any reasonable combination of ordinary and leap years in four consecutive years.

Common Pitfalls:
A frequent mistake is to assume all four years are ordinary and simply do 4 * 365. Another mistake is to think there are two leap years within every set of four consecutive years, which is not correct in the usual non century situation. Students may also forget the exact number of days in a leap year and mix up 365 and 366, so always recall that February has 29 days in a leap year.

Final Answer:
Therefore, the total number of days in four consecutive years, with three ordinary years and one leap year, is 1461 days.