Select the correct mirror image of the given figure when the mirror is placed at MN.

Correct — A. MN is the vertical line standing at the right-hand end of the string, so this is a left-right reflection.

Rule: reverse the order of the characters, and flip each character left-to-right only. Nothing turns upside down.

The string is J p e 4 m f p, so the image must run p f m 4 e p J with every glyph reversed: q, an f whose hook opens to the left, m, a backwards 4, a backwards e, q, and a J whose foot-hook curls right.

Option (a) shows exactly that — its f still carries its crossbar and hook at the top, and its m still has its arches at the top.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  The order is reversed correctly, but its f and m stand on their heads — the f's crossbar and hook sit at the foot of the stroke and the m's arches point downwards. A side mirror cannot do that.
• (c)
  This is the whole string turned through 180 degrees: p reads as d, e as a rotated e, m as an upside-down m, and J with its hook at the top. That is a mirror plus a water image, not the mirror alone.
• (d)
  Its f and m are upside down as in option (b), and its final J is not reversed at all — the foot-hook still curls to the left, exactly as in the original.

A mirror standing on a vertical line does two things at once, and candidates usually apply just one of them.

First, the order reverses: whatever stood nearest the mirror stays nearest it in the image, so the last character of the string appears first.

Second, each character flips left-to-right, which is not the same as rotating it. Tops stay at the top. An f keeps its crossbar high, an m keeps its arches high, and a 4 becomes a backwards 4 rather than an upside-down one.

Characters that are symmetric left to right — here the m — come through looking unchanged, which gives you a fixed anchor while you scan the options.

Key facts

• A vertical mirror reverses left-to-right order and flips each character left-to-right.
• A vertical mirror never turns a character upside down, which is what a water image does.
• The letter m is symmetric left to right, so its mirror image looks like the original.

Common traps

• Reversing the order and leaving the glyphs exactly as they were.
• Rotating the glyphs through 180 degrees instead of flipping them sideways, which gives option (c).
• Checking only the first character, which is a q in three of the four options.

No directly related past PYQ was found.