Question

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on it.

An employee has been assigned the task of allotting offices to six of the staff members. The offices are numbered 1 to 6. The offices are arranged in a row and they are separated from each other by six foot high dividers. Hence voices, sounds and cigarette smoke flow easily from one office to another.

Miss Ruby needs to use the telephone quite often throughout the day. Mr. Minhas and Mr. Brar need adjacent offices as they need to consult each other often while working. Miss Harsha is a senior employee and has to be allotted office number 5, having the biggest window. Mr. Dongre requires silence in the offices next to his. Mr. Tanjore, Mr. Minhas and Mr. Dongre are all smokers. Miss Harsha finds tobacco smoke allergic and consequently the offices next to hers are to be occupied by non-smokers. Unless specifically stated, all the employees maintain an atmosphere of silence during office hours.

In the event of what occurrence, within a month of the assignment of the offices, would a request for a change in office be put forth by one or more employees?

• A. Mr. Dongre quitting smoking
• B. The installation of a noisy teletype machine by Miss Harsha in her office
• C. Miss Ruby needs silence in the office(s) next to her own
• D. Mr. Tanjore taking over the duties formerly taken care of by Miss Ruby

Hint:

Work out which single office is protected by Mr. Dongre's silence rule, then check which of the four scenarios breaks silence in that exact office.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Fix the seating first.
Working through the rules as before gives the layout: 1 = Dongre, 2 = Tanjore, 3 = Minhas, 4 = Brar, 5 = Harsha, 6 = Ruby.
Office 1 sits at the end of the row, so it has only one neighbour: office 2. This means Mr. Dongre's rule, that the office next to his must stay silent, applies specifically to office 2, which is Mr. Tanjore's office.

Step 2: Check option A, Dongre quitting smoking.
Dongre's own smoking habit was never the reason he was placed anywhere, and no rule in the passage depends on whether Dongre himself smokes. Quitting changes nothing for anyone else, so this does not force a change.

Step 3: Check option B, a noisy teletype machine in Harsha's office.
Harsha's neighbours are office 4 (Brar) and office 6 (Ruby). Neither of them has any rule requiring silence next to them, and Ruby is already used to noise from her own frequent phone calls. So new noise from Harsha's office does not break any stated rule.

Step 4: Check option C, Ruby needing silence next to her.
Ruby sits in office 6, whose only neighbour is office 5, Harsha's office. Harsha follows the default rule of silence during office hours already, since nothing states otherwise for her. So this new requirement is already satisfied and forces no change.

Step 5: Check option D, Tanjore taking over Ruby's phone duties.
Tanjore sits in office 2, which is exactly the office Dongre's silence rule protects. If Tanjore starts using the telephone often, like Ruby used to, office 2 stops being silent. That directly breaks Dongre's requirement, so either Dongre or Tanjore would have good reason to ask for a different office.

Final Answer:
Only the change in option D creates a real conflict with an existing rule, so it is the one that would trigger a request for a change in office. \[ \boxed{\text{Mr. Tanjore taking over Miss Ruby's duties}} \]