Solve: LEAF : ? :: TIME : EMIT

Correct — B.
Rule: reverse the word. TIME read from the last letter back is E, M, I, T = EMIT.

LEAF from the last letter back:
F, A, E, L = FAEL → option (b).

Check: FAEL read backwards gives LEAF again.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  FEAL — FEAL only swaps the first and last letters. Swapping the ends of TIME gives EIMT, not EMIT, so that is not the rule.
• (c)
  LFAE — LFAE keeps L in front and reverses the rest. In a full reversal the first letter goes last, as T does in EMIT.
• (d)
  FELA — FELA ends in A. In a full reversal the first letter, L, must come last, just as T ends EMIT.

In LEAF : ? :: TIME : EMIT, the pair TIME : EMIT shows the rule and LEAF gets the same treatment. Check whether the letters change or only move: TIME and EMIT use the same four letters, so nothing is shifted along the alphabet.

The new order is TIME exactly backwards, so the rule is reversal, and LEAF backwards is FAEL.

Key facts

• A reversal puts the first letter last and the last letter first.
• Reversing a word twice gives the original word back, a quick check on any reversal.
• If both words in a pair use the same letters, the rule reorders them rather than shifting them.

Common traps

• Swapping only the first and last letters, which gives FEAL
• Missing that the known pair comes second in this analogy

No directly related past PYQ was found.