杰克正看著安,安在看喬治。杰克結(jié)婚了,喬治沒(méi)有結(jié)婚。一個(gè)已婚的人在看一個(gè)未婚的人嗎?
· A: Yes
· A:是
· B: No
· B:否
· C: Cannot be determined
· C:不知道
The correct answer is A.
正確答案是A。
Before I get to the explanation, a few words on why I set the question. I wanted to test if it really was the case that more than 80 per cent of people choose C. Well, the results are in, and with more than 200,000 submissions, this is how you voted:
在我告訴你們答案之前, 我想說(shuō)說(shuō)我為什么要問(wèn)這個(gè)問(wèn)題。我想知道是不是有超過(guò)80%的人會(huì)選擇C。嗯,仙子啊有超過(guò)20萬(wàn)份提交的答案,這是選擇各選項(xiàng)的百分比:
· A 27.68 per cent
· B 4.55 per cent
· C 67.77 per cent
Why is this question so tricky? It is because it appears to give you insufficient information. Anne’s marital status is not known, nor can it be determined, and so you make the inference that the question posed cannot be determined.
為什么這道題這么難?因?yàn)轱@示的信息不充分。安是否已婚不知道,也不能下結(jié)論,所以你可能會(huì)選擇無(wú)法回答。
In fact, Anne’s marital status is irrelevant to the answer. If she is married, then a married person is looking at an unmarried person (Anne is looking at George), and if she isn’t, a married person is looking at an unmarried person (Jack is looking at Anne).
事實(shí)上,安的婚姻狀況和答案無(wú)關(guān)。如果安已婚,那么一個(gè)已婚的人在看一個(gè)未婚的人(安在看喬治);如果安未婚,那么一個(gè)已婚的人在看一個(gè)未婚的人(杰克在看安)。
Written down it becomes more obvious. If ‘>’ means ‘looking at’ then:
寫(xiě)下來(lái)可能會(huì)更清楚些。如果>是“看著”,那么:
Jack > Anne > George, or
Married > Unknown > Unmarried
杰克 >安> 喬治
或者已婚>未知>未婚
Replace Unkown with Married or with Unmarried and either way there is clearly a married person looking at an unmarried one.
未知無(wú)論是已婚還是未婚,答案都會(huì)是一個(gè)已婚的人看著一個(gè)未婚的人。