NDA (I) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 44 of 149

Correct — B, P R Q S. In this section each label stands immediately after the part it names. So (P) is 'Do you think', (R) is 'this soap', (Q) is 'will' and (S) is 'shrink woollen clothes'. Reading P R Q S gives 'Do you think this soap will shrink woollen clothes?', because a clause embedded after 'Do you think' keeps ordinary statement order, with the subject before the auxiliary.

• (a)P Q R S — This keeps question inversion inside the embedded clause, giving 'Do you think will this soap shrink', which no longer works once the clause is tucked under 'think'.
• (c)Q R P S — Starting with the auxiliary and then dropping 'do you think' in the middle splits the clause and leaves the sentence with two competing question frames.
• (d)Q P R S — Two question openings collide at the front, and the subject 'this soap' is stranded away from the auxiliary that belongs to it.

A word-order item on embedded questions, which take statement order after a verb such as think, know or wonder.

The question mark at the end tempts candidates into using inverted order throughout. Only the outer clause is inverted; whatever follows 'think' behaves like a plain statement.

• Inverting the inner clause because the whole sentence is a question.

Asked as an ordering item testing whether the inner clause keeps statement order.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Arrange the parts. Do you know (P) can (Q) this machine (R) print colour photographs (S) ? The proper sequence should be

  • (a)P Q R S
  • (b)P R Q S
  • (c)Q R P S
  • (d)Q P R S

  Answer(b) P R Q S — 'Do you know this machine can print colour photographs?'

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Arrange the parts. Tell me (P) where (Q) he (R) has kept the file (S). The proper sequence should be

  • (a)P Q R S
  • (b)P R Q S
  • (c)Q P R S
  • (d)P Q S R

  Answer(a) P Q R S — 'Tell me where he has kept the file.'