Examine the following statements : 1. Lady's finger is tastier than cabbage. 2. Cauliflower is tastier than lady's finger. 3. Cabbage is not tastier than peas. The conclusion that can be drawn from these statements is that
- (a) peas are as tasty as lady's finger.
- (b) peas are as tasty as cauliflower and lady's finger.
- (c) cabbage is the least tasty of the four vegetables.
- (d) cauliflower is tastier than cabbage. ✓ UPSC's answer
Why the answer is (d)
• Statement 1 tells us Lady's finger is tastier than cabbage, and statement 2 tells us Cauliflower is tastier than Lady's finger. Chaining these two inequalities gives Cauliflower > Lady's finger > Cabbage, so Cauliflower is necessarily tastier than cabbage.
• Statement 3 says cabbage is not tastier than peas, which means cabbage is either less tasty than or equal to peas; it does not pin down peas to any specific position relative to lady's finger or cauliflower.
• Because the position of peas is only bounded from below (peas ≥ cabbage), no exact equality between peas and any other vegetable can be concluded, ruling out options that assert peas are "as tasty as" another vegetable.
• The only conclusion that follows with certainty from the given statements, without any additional assumption, is the transitive result that cauliflower is tastier than cabbage, which is option (d).
Why the other options are wrong
- (a) peas are as tasty as lady's finger.
- We only know cabbage ≤ peas and lady's finger > cabbage; the exact relationship between peas and lady's finger is undetermined, so we cannot conclude they are equally tasty.
- (b) peas are as tasty as cauliflower and lady's finger.
- Cauliflower is stated to be tastier than lady's finger, so no vegetable can be simultaneously as tasty as both; moreover, peas' position relative to lady's finger and cauliflower is not fixed by the statements.
- (c) cabbage is the least tasty of the four vegetables.
- Statement 3 allows cabbage to be equal to peas ("not tastier than" includes equality), so cabbage is not guaranteed to be the unique least-tasty vegetable among the four.
Asked in the CSAT Paper II of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2015, held on 23 August 2015. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.