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13. If the hut is tall, then the skyscraper is short. 18. Unless the party gets a majority, the house will be
(A) The hut is tall. dissolved and the president’s rule will be imposed.
(B) The hut is not tall. (a) The party got a majority, it means that either the
house will not be dissolved or the presidents rule will
(C) The sky scraper is short.
not be imposed.
(D) The sky scraper is not short. (b) The house is not dissolved or the president’s rule is
(a) C A (b) B D (c) B C not imposed means that the party got a majority.
(d) D B (e) None of these (c) The house is not dissolved and the president’s rule is
not imposed means that the party got a majority.
14. The umpire gives a break, only if the audience get bored.
(d) The party did not get a majority and the house is not
(A) The umpire gave a break. dissolved, means the president’s rule is imposed.
(B) The umpire did not give a break. (e) Both (b) and (c).
(C) The audience do not get bored.
Directions for Q19 and Q20: Each question below consists of a
(D) The audience got bored. statement followed by four option statements. From the option
(a) C D (b) A D (c) B C statements, select the one that logically negates the main
(d) D B (e) None of these statement.

15. Unless the Sun sets, the Moon does not rise. 19. Either the batsman is out or the decision is wrong.
(A) The moon rises. (a) The batsman is not out and the decision is wrong.

(B) The sun sets. (b) The decision is not wrong and the batsman is not out.
(c) The batsman is out and the decision is not wrong.
(C) The moon does not rise.
(d) The decision is not wrong and the batsman is out.
(D) The sun did not set.
(e) None of these
(a) A D (b) C D (c) C B
(d) A B (e) None of these 20. The boy plays, unless he is hungry.
(a) The boy is hungry and he does not play.
Directions for Q16 to Q18: Each question below consists of a main
(b) The boy is playing and he is not hungry.
statement followed by option statements. From the option.
(c) The boy is hungry and he is playing.
statements select the one that logically follows the main statement.
(d) The boy is not playing and he is not hungry.
16. Whenever India plays Pakistan, I will either bite my nails (e) None of these
or my B P rises.
(a) India is not playing Pakistan means that I will nether VENN DIAGRAM
bite my nails nor my B P does rise.
Venn diagrams are an effective way of representing sets and
(b) I am biting my nails or my B P rises, implies that India their operations and constitute a solving technique for problems
is playing Pakistan. based on sets and this operations.
(c) I am not biting my nails or my B P did not rise means
It is, therefore, imperative that before we discuss Venn
that India is not playing Pakistan.
diagrams, we need to understand the conceptual principles of
(d) India is playing Pakistan but my B P is not rising set and its operations.
means that I must be biting my nails.
(e) Both (b) and (c). SET THEORY

The three terms that are essential in understanding the set

17. If Rama leaves Ayodhya, then he will go to forest or to Sri
theory are – set, universal set and subset.
Lanka.
(a) Rama did not go to forest and did not go to Sri Lanka A set is a collection of well-defined objects. Each member of a
implies that he did not leave Ayodhya. set is called an element. All elements of a set follow a certain
(b) Rama did not leave Ayodhya implies that he will not pattern and share a common property among them.
go to forest or will not go to Sri Lanka. For, example, the collection of first five prime numbers is a set
(c) Rama went to forest or to Sri Lanka implies that he containing the elements 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and the rule that is
did not leave Ayodhya. common to them is that all the five numbers are prime.
(d) Rama did not leave AYodhya implies that he will not Similarly, the collection of cricketers in the world who were out
go to forest and will not go to Sri Lanka. for 99 runs in a test match is a set. All of them had missed the
century by one run.
(e) None of these

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But the collection of good cricket players of India does not circle representing A is drawn in the circle representing B as
constitute a set since the term ‘good player’ is vague and not shown in fig. 1(i). If A and B are not equal but they have some
well-defined. common elements, then they are represented by two
Similarly, the set of vowels in English alphabet is V(vowels) intersecting circles (fig. 1(ii)).
= {a, e, i, o, u} If A and B have nothing in common and they are two disjoint
Rules for writing a set sets, they are represented by two non-intersecting circles
(fig. 1(iii)).
A set is denoted by a capital letter and the elements of the set in
U U U
small letters as indicated in the following examples. B A B
A B

A = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9}
A
B = {a, b, c, d, e}
Here, A and B are the sets while 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and a, b, c, d, e are
the elements belonging to the sets A and B respectively. Fig. 1(i) Fig. 1(ii) Fig. 1(iii)

The symbol  is used to denote that an element belongs to a set. Venn diagrams are not generally drawn to scale. Elements that
In the above examples, 3  A and c  B. do not belong to any of the given sets are shown outside the sets
Following are certain standard letters used for some particular sets. but within the rectangle of the universal set.

N: Set of all natural numbers (1, 2, 3, …)

A B
Z: Set of all integers (3, 2, 1, 0, –1, –2)
a d b
Q: Set of all rational numbers
R: Set of all real numbers g
e f
C: Set of all complex numbers
c
Universal Set: A set that contains all sets in a given context is
called the universal set and it is denoted by U.
C
Illustration:
1. In two dimensional co-ordinate geometry, the set of all The above figure is a representation of a Venn diagram.
points in xy-plane is the universal set.
Here, each circle A, B and C represents a set of elements.
2. When we are using sets containing natural numbers, then
Set A has the elements a, d, e and g.
N is the universal set.

Subsets: Let A and B be two sets. If every element of A is an Set B has the elements b, d, g and f.
element of B, then A is called a subset of B. It is written as Set C has the elements e, g, f and c.
A  B. Set B is said to be a superset of A and is written as
Both A and B have the elements d and g.
B  A.
Both B and C have the elements g and f.
Illustration: A = (1, 2, 3)
Both C and A have the elements e and g.
and B = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
A, B and C all have the element g.
It may be seen that every elements set A is an element of set B.
Set A is, therefore, a subset of set B  A  B. To elaborate further,

B is the superset of A  B  A Let us now represent the findings of the following survey in the
form of a Venn diagram and evolve out further information, if any.
Null Set A set is said to be null or empty if it has no element and
is denoted by . A null set is a subset of every set and every set In a survey on a sample of 1000 persons with reference to their
knowledge of Tamil, English and Hindi languages, it was
is a subset of itself.
reported that 542 persons knew Tamil, 538 persons knew
Venn Diagrams English and 538 persons knew Hindi. As many as 105 persons
Venn diagrams are an alternate way of depicting sets. The knew both Tamil and English, 78 persons knew both English and
Hindi and 85 person both Hindi and Tamil while 175 persons
universal set U is represented by points within a rectangle and
knew all the three languages.
its subsets are represented by points in closed curves (usually
circles) within the rectangle. If set A is a subset of set B, then the

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Total 1000 persons (b) Cats and dogs are two different categories of animals and
hence, the Venn diagram is
Tamil - 542 English - 538

Cats
a 105 b
Do gs
175
85 78

Hindi - 538
(c) Boy and girl come under the category ‘student’ but they are
Venn diagram for the survey separate by gender. Hence, the Venn diagram is

We can now find out the following additional information from Student
the diagram.
(a) Number of persons who knew only Tamil = a Boy Girl
a  542 – (105 + 175 + 85)
 542 – 365 = 177

(b) Number of persons who knew only English = b

b  538 – (105 + 175 + 78)
 538 – 358 = 180 (d) Pigeons belong to the class of birds but dogs come under the
(c) Number of persons who knew only Hindi = c class of animals. Hence, the Venn diagram is as follows.
c  538 – (78 + 175 + 85)
Birds
 538 – 338 = 200
Pigeons Do gs
(d) Number of persons who knew exactly one language
= 177 + 180 = 200 = 557
(e) Number of persons who knew exactly two languages
 105 + 78 + 85 = 268

(f) Number of persons who knew all the three languages = 175
(g) Number of persons who knew at least two languages (this
includes persons who knew all the three languages) Example 2: In interviewing a set of persons, it was found that
= 105 + 78 + 85 + 175 = 443 they come under different categories. Some of them are
educated, some are employed and a few hail from rural regions.
Thus, with the help of the Venn diagram, we have been able to get
all possible information from the sample survey and as a result, The following Venn diagram represents the classification of
we can easily answer any type of question that may follow.
persons in each category.
Example 1: Express the following as Venn diagram
(a) Relation between languages, English and Hindi
Educated
(b) Relation between cats and dogs
a-16
(c) Relation amongst boy, girl and student
(d) Relation amongst pigeons, birds and dogs
b-12
Solutions
d-22 g-6
(a) English and Hindi are two different languages and come Employed
under ‘Language’ in general. The Venn diagram is as follows. c-10 f-14
e-34
Language

Rural
Engl ish Hindi
Questions
1. How many educated persons other than rural are
employed?
2. How many educated rural persons are employed?

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3. How many rural persons are educated but not employed? 1. Let x be the number of persons who hold all the three
4. How many persons who are employed were neither qualifications.
educated nor from rural regions? Then, 10 + 20 + x + 30 = 85
Solutions
 x  85  60  25
There are three closed figures in the diagram, a triangle, a circle
and a rectangle. Each of these figures represents the set of Persons, holding all the three qualifications, are 25.
persons coming under the three categories. The number written
2. From the diagram, number of persons who are diploma
in each region a to g indicates the set of persons belonging to
holders = 30 + 25 + 12 + 5 = 72
that region.

Let us now answer the questions given. 3. From the diagram, number of persons who possess at
least two qualifications (which includes persons with all
1. Refer to region b in the Venn diagram. It represents the
the three qualifications)
intersection of the triangle set and the rectangle set.
Therefore, the number of persons who are educated and = 20 + 12 + 30 + x
employed = 12.
= 20 + 12 + 30 + 25 = 87
2. Region ‘g’ represents the intersection of the circle set, the
triangle set and the rectangle set. Therefore, the number 4. It is clear from the diagram, number of persons who hold
of educated rural persons who are employed = 6. exactly one qualification = 10 + 15 + 5 = 30
3. Refer to region ‘d’ which covers the intersection of
5. As per diagram, number of diploma holders
triangle set and the circle set. Therefore, the number of
rural persons who are educated and not employed = 22. = 12 + 5 + 30 + 25 = 72

4. Region ‘f’ represents the number of persons who are

PRACTICE EXERCISE
employed but neither educated nor from rural region
= 14. Directions for Q1 to Q6: Read the following passage and
Example 3: Amongst the staff in a company, 85 persons are answer the questions given below.
degree holders and 72 persons are certificate holders,
In a survey, it was reported that a total of 500 persons knew
20 persons are both degree and certificate holders only,
English, 550 persons Hindi and 460 persons Sanskrit. Among
12 persons both certificate and diploma holders only and
these, 110 persons knew only Hindi and Sanskrit, 120 persons
30 persons both diploma and degree holders only. Further,
knew only English and Hindi and 80 knew only English and
10 persons are only degree holders.
Sanskrit. There were 100 persons who knew all the three
Questions
languages. A total of 1000 persons were surveyed.
1. How many persons possess all the three qualifications?
1. How many persons knew only Hindi?
2. How many persons are diploma holders?
(a) 240 (b) 220 (c) 250 (d) 260
3. How many persons possess at least two qualifications?
4. How many persons hold exactly one qualification? 2. How many persons knew at least two languages?
5. How many persons are diploma holders? (a) 400 (b) 430 (c) 410 (d) 450

Solutions 3. How many persons knew English or Sanskrit but not Hindi?
(a) 450 (b) 500 (c) 540 (d) 400
The given information in the example can be represented by the
following Venn diagram. 4. How many persons knew English or Sanskrit but not Hindi?

Degree – 85 Certificate – 72 (a) 100 (b) 80 (c) 110 (d) 120

5. How many persons knew exactly one of three languages?

20
10 15 (a) 590 (b) 690 (c) 670 (d) 700

x 6. What is the ratio of those who knew all the three

30 12 languages to those who knew only Sanskrit?
1 1 10 5
5 (a) (b) (c) (d)
9 10 17 27
Diploma – y

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Directions for Q7 to Q11: Read the following passage and 13. Which section represents the uneducated women who
answer the questions given below. have Government jobs as well as jobs in private sector?

In a survey conducted by an Employment Agency, 130 persons (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 12 (d) 9
were asked about their qualifications. It was reported from their 14. Section numbered 10 represents which of the following?
response that 85 were Engineering graduates, 72 were Science
(a) Educated women in private jobs
graduates and 73 were Computer programmers. Further, it was
reported that 25 persons possessed all the three qualifications, (b) Uneducated women in Government jobs
20 persons had qualified in Engineering and Science, 12 persons (c) Educated men working in private sector
in Science and Programming and 30 in Engineering and
(d) Educated men having private as well as Government
Programming.
jobs
7. How many persons were only Science graduates?
15. Which section represents educated women who neither
(a) 10 (b) 15 (c) 6 (d) 25
have Government nor private sector jobs?
8. How many persons were possessing exactly two of the (a) 2 (b) 3 (c) 6 (d) 5
three qualifications?
16. Which section represents uneducated men who are in
(a) 45 (b) 55 (c) 62 (d) 37
private sector jobs?
9. How many persons were not Engineering graduates? (a) 8 (b) 10 (c) 11 (d) 12
(a) 62 (b) 45 (c) 75 (d) 87
Directions for Q17 to Q21: A survey of faculty and graduate
10. How many persons were both Engineers and Computer students at the University of Madras revealed the following
Programmes but not Science graduates? information: 51 admire Moe, 49 admire Larry, 60 admire Curly,
(a) 25 (b) 30 (c) 16 (d) 50 34 admire Moe and Larry, 32 admire Larry and Curly, 36 admire
Moe and Curly, 24 admire all three of the Stooges and 1 admires
11. How many persons were possessing at least one of the none of the three Stooges.
three qualifications?
17. How many people were surveyed?
(a) 118 (b) 31 (c) 62 (d) 93
(a) 84 (b) 85 (c) 83 (d) 86
Directions for Q12 to Q16: Read the following passage and
answer the questions given below. 18. How many admire Curly but not Larry nor Moe?
(a) 16 (b) 18 (c) 20 (d) 19
In the Venn diagram given below, the square represents woman,
the triangle represents persons who are in Government service, 19. How many admire Larry or Curly?
the circle represents educated persons and the rectangle (a) 79 (b) 76 (c) 80 (d) 77
represents persons working in private sector. Each section of
the diagram is numbered. Study the diagram carefully and 20. How many admire exactly one of the Stooges?
answer the questions that follow. (a) 22 (b) 28 (c) 26 (d) 24

Women 21. How many admire exactly two of the Stooges?

(a) 30 (b) 34 (c) 36 (d) 28
Educated 1 Persons in
4
Directions for Q22 to Q25: At Dawnview High, there are
persons Government
Service 400 Grade II learners. 270 do Computer Science, 300 do English
7 2 and 50 do Business studies. All those doing Computer Science do
3 13
English, 20 take Computer Science and Business studies and 35
5 6 9
take English and Business studies. Using a Venn diagram,
8 10 12
calculate the probability that a pupil drawn at random will take
11
22. English but not Business studies or Computer Science.
7 9 11 3
Persons in (a) (b) (c) (d)
80 80 80 80
private sector

23. English but not Business studies.

12. Which section represents educated women who are in
Government jobs? 57 53 59 61
(a) (b) (c) (d)
(a) 2 (b) 3 (c) 6 (d) 4 80 80 80 80

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24. English or Business studies but not Computer Science. Directions for Q32 to Q36: These questions are based on the
data given below.
9 13 7 19
(a) (b) (c) (d)
80 80 80 80 In a class of 150 students, 70 students passed Physics and 90 in
Statistics. 10 students failed in both the subjects.
25. English or Business studies.
32. How many students in the class passed in at least one
67 69 63 63
(a) (b) (c) (d) subject?
80 80 80 80
(a) 20 (b) 180 (c) 140 (d) 160
26. This year, x people won an Olympic medal for water
33. How many students passed in both the subjects?
competitions. One-third of the winners earned a medal for
(a) 20 (b) 160 (c) 40 (d) 140
swimming and one-fourth of those who earned a medal
for swimming also earned a medal for diving. How many 34. What percentage (approx) of students who passed in at
people won an Olympic medal for water competitions but least one subject, failed only in statistics?
did not receive both a medal for swimming and a medal (a) 70 (b) 35 (c) 280 (d) 40
for diving? 35. What percentage (approx) of students who passed in
11x 7x 5x 6x physics also passed in statistics?
(a) (b) (c) (d)
12 12 12 7 (a) 14 (b) 42 (c) 36 (d) 28

27. A survey was conducted among consumers who use 36. How many students passed in exactly one subject?
products in liquid and powder form. One third of them (a) 160 (b) 120 (c) 140 (d) 20
don't use liquid. Two fifth of them don't use powder.
Directions for Q37 to Q41: These questions are based on the
427 use both powder and liquid and one fifth use neither
following venn diagram.
of the products. What is the total no. of consumers?
(a) 815 (b) 715 (c) 615 (d) 915

27. In a class of 120 students, numbered 1 to 120, all even Volley c Foot
a b
numbered students opt for Physics, those whose numbers ball ball

are divisible by 5 opt for Chemistry and those whose e

numbers are divisible by 7 opt for Maths. How many opt d f
for none of the three subjects?
g
(a) 19 (b) 41 (c) 21 (d) 57
Cricket
29. Of the 200 candidates who were interviewed for a None = n
position at a call center, 100 had a two-wheeler, 70 had a
credit card and 140 had a mobile phone. 40 of them had 37. Which area represents the number of people who play
both, a two-wheeler and a credit card, 30 had both, a Volleyball and Cricket but not Football?
credit card and a mobile phone and 60 had both, a two (a) a + g (b) e (c) d (d) e + f
wheeler and a mobile phone and 10 had all the three. How 38. Which area represents the number of people who play
many candidates had none of the three? Volleyball or Football but not Cricket?
(a) 0 (b) 20 (c) 10 (d) 18 (a) d + f (b) a + b + c (c) c (d) c + e

30. In a class of 40 students, 12 enrolled for both English and 39. Which area represents the number of people who play
German. 22 enrolled for German. If the students of the Cricket or Football?
class enrolled for at least one of the two subjects, then (a) b + g (b) b + f + g
how many students enrolled for only English and not (c) b + c + d + e + f + g (d) c + d + e
German?
40. Which area represents the number of people who play at
(a) 30 (b) 10 (c) 18 (d) 28 least two games?
31. In a class, 40% of the students enrolled for Maths and (a) c + d + f (b) c + d + e + f
70% enrolled for Economics. If 15% of the students (c) a + b + e + d + f + g (d) None of these
enrolled for both Maths and Economics, what % of the 41. Which area represents the number of people who play
students of the class did not enrol for either of the two exactly two games?
subjects? (a) n + e (b) a + b + g
(a) 5% (b) 15% (c) 0% (d) 25% (c) c + d + f (d) c + d + e + f

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Directions for Q42 to Q45: These questions are based on the

data given below.
In a locality, three magazines are read, namely India Today, Sports
Star and Business India. 45 people read only one magazine, 20
read exactly two magazines and 5 read all the three. There is no (i) Some A are B, also indicates that – Some A are not B
one who does not read any of the three magazines.

42. How many people are there in the locality?

(a) 65 (b) 70 (c) 50 (d) 90

43. How many people read at least two magazines?

(a) 25 (b) 20 (c) 50 (d) 45 (ii) Some A are B also indicates that – All A are B.

44. If the ratio of people who read India Today to those who
read Sports Star to those who read Business India is 2:3:4
and 18 people read India today, then how many read
Sports Star?
(a) 28 (b) 27 (c) 36 (d) 54
(iii) Some A are B also indicates that – All B are A.
45. If 10 people stop reading India Today and start reading
Business India, then what is the maximum number of
people who read exactly two magazines?
(a) 20 (b) 30 (c) 25 (d) 55

SYLLOGISM For e.g.: Some mangoes are pears.

Syllogism is a verbal reasoning type problem in which a (i)
conclusion is drawn from two given or assumed propositions
(premises); a common or middle term is present in the two
premises but not in the conclusion.

The best method of solving the Syllogism’s problem is

through Venn Diagrams. There are four ways in which the
relationship could be made. (ii)

Category 1

All A are B – Means the whole circle representing A lies within

the circle representing B.

(iii)

Category 2

No A is B – means that circles representing A and B does not Category 4.

intersect at all.
Some A are not B

Means that some portion of circle A has no intersection with

circle B while the remaining portion of circle A is uncertain
whether this portion touches B or not.
Example: No chair is a table.
(i) Some A are not B also indicates that – Some A are B.
Category 3

Some A are B

Means that some part of the circle represented by A is within the

circle represented by B.

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