In each of the following questions, a specific rearrangement of letters has been applied to the first word to form the second. Apply the same rearrangement pattern to the third word and choose the correct answer from the given options. METAPHOR : EMATHPRO :: NORMAL : ?

Correct — C.
Rule: split the word into pairs of letters and swap the two letters of each pair.

METAPHOR → ME | TA | PH | OR
→ EM | AT | HP | RO = EMATHPRO

NORMAL → NO | RM | AL
→ ON | MR | LA = ONMRLA → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  ORMLAN — ORMLAN sends N from the first place to the last. Under the pair swap N only trades places with O, its partner, so it stays in the first pair.
• (b)
  ONRMLA — ONRMLA swaps NO and AL but leaves RM as it is. METAPHOR swaps every pair — TA → AT and PH → HP included — so RM must become MR.
• (d)
  ONMRAL — ONMRAL swaps NO and RM but leaves AL as it is. METAPHOR's last pair, OR, is swapped to RO, so NORMAL's last pair must become LA.

A letter rearrangement keeps the letters and changes only their places. Read the first pair to find which position moves where.

Number METAPHOR's letters 1 to 8. The code reads them in the order 2 1 4 3 6 5 8 7: each adjacent pair trades places.

NORMAL has six letters, so it splits into three whole pairs and takes the order 2 1 4 3 6 5.

Key facts

• METAPHOR → EMATHPRO follows the position order 2 1 4 3 6 5 8 7.
• A pair swap needs no alphabet arithmetic: every letter of the word reappears in the code.
• NORMAL → ONMRLA follows the position order 2 1 4 3 6 5.

Common traps

• Swapping the outer pairs and forgetting the middle one
• Looking for a +1 or −1 letter shift when the code uses exactly the word's own letters

No directly related past PYQ was found.