Instruction: In a code language, “The music sounds sweet” is coded as “la ma na ta”, “The music sounds loud” is coded as “la ma pa ta”, “The song sounds sweet” is coded as “ka ma na ta”. Question: What is the code for “The song sounds loud”?

Correct — D. Compare two sentences that differ by one word.

Rule: the codes two sentences share belong to the words they share.

Sentences 1 and 2 differ in sweet/loud and in na/pa, so sweet = na and loud = pa.
Sentences 1 and 3 differ in music/song and in la/ka, so music = la and song = ka.
The and sounds take the codes left over, ma and ta.

'The song sounds loud' = ka + pa + ma + ta, which is ka ma ta pa, option (d).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  pa na ka ta — pa na ka ta carries na, the code for sweet, which the target sentence does not contain. It also drops ma, which The or sounds needs.
• (b)
  ma na ra ka — ma na ra ka carries na (sweet) and ra, a code no given sentence uses. It has no pa for loud and no ta.
• (c)
  la na ya ka — la na ya ka carries la (music) and na (sweet), neither of which is in 'The song sounds loud'. It has no ma, ta or pa.

In a sentence code each word keeps one code wherever it appears, but the codes need not follow the word order. Here music is la, the first code of 'la ma na ta', although The is the first word. So match sets, not positions.

Put two sentences side by side. Their shared words and shared codes form one group; what is left over pairs up.

Key facts

• sweet = na and loud = pa, from sentences 1 and 2.
• music = la and song = ka, from sentences 1 and 3.
• The and sounds share ma and ta, in an order the data cannot fix.

Common traps

• Matching codes by position, which pairs The with la.
• Accepting pa na ka ta, which gets three codes right but puts na (sweet) where ma should be.

No directly related past PYQ was found.