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Flowers (Posted on 2003-03-01) Difficulty: 1 of 5
How many flowers do I have if all of them are roses except two, all of them are tulips except two, and all of them are daisies except two?

See The Solution Submitted by Ravi Raja    
Rating: 3.0000 (14 votes)

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Uncertainty | Comment 13 of 20 |

As the words, roses, daisies & tulips, in the question are in plural tense, it implies that there are more than one flower.  The phrase, except one, in the question can be interpreted as except two bundles of flowers.  If we interpret the question accordingly to this manner, the question would turn up to be like this:

How many (pieces of) flowers do I have if all of them are roses (or there are numerous roses in a bundle) except two (bundles of different flowers since there are a bundle of roses & a bundle of tulips' flowers), all of them are tulips (or there are numerous tulips' flowers in a bundle) except two (bundles of different flowers since there are a bundle of daisies & a bundle of roses), all of them are daisies (or there are numerous daisies' flowers) except two (bundles of different flowers & there are a bundle of tulips' flowers & a bundle of roses).  With the above interpretation, the numbers of flowers for each tulip, rose & daisy are uncertainty.  However, we know that there are only three bundles of different flowers & there are tulips, roses & daisies.

If we view the rose, tulip, daisy as one piece of flower each, the question will raise, why should the flowers in the question are in plural tense?  There should be no logic for the question to be in plural tense if it refers to only one flower each.

With the interpretation to follow the above manner, we could not tell how many flowers are there in the question.  But we know there are more than one flower each of rose, tulips & daisy & there are one bundle of roses, one bundle of tulips & one budnle of daisies.

Thus, I would give the rate for this question to be 3 since it causes us to think a little wider scope.


  Posted by Jonathan Chang on 2005-04-17 00:15:49
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