A father is planning to knit a striped hat and a checkered blanket for

Question

A father is planning to knit a striped hat and a checkered blanket for his newborn son. Each of these items will consist of four distinct colors of yarn. Since the hat and blanket are part of a matching set, they must share at least two colors. Each color of yarn is available in three types: one made with cotton fiber, one made with wool fiber, and one made with acrylic fiber. The cotton and wool yarns are made from natural fibers, while the acrylic yarn is from a synthetic fiber. Due to cost concerns, each item can contain no more than two colors of yarn in natural fibers; the other colors will be synthetic. All of the yarn of the same color in each item will be made of the same kind of fiber. He has already chosen the following styles of yarn for each item.

Hat:    Blanket:   
  Green wool  Red acrylic  
  Yellow wool  Gray cotton  
  Blue acrylic  Blue acrylic

Select a style of yarn that could be used in either the hat or the blanket, but not both. Then select a style of yarn that can be used in neither the hat nor the blanket. Make only two selections, one in each column.

LHE · Answer

Red cotton - Neither 
Not sure what the other one is.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OA of this question has been updated, It is:

Either the hat or blanket, but not both : Gray acrylic
 Neither hat nor blanket : Red cotton

Best.

lucasd14 · Answer

Why is Gray acrylic the correct for Either the hat or blanket, but not both, if gray is already in use with coton fiber?

Thanks!

Arpitamitra · Answer

Hi  Sajjad1994 ,

Request if you post an explanation of this question.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

​​​​​​​  STEP 1: ANALYZE THE INFORMATION

You’ve got two items to be knitted; each will be made of four kinds of yarn, and the knitter has already decided on three of them for each project. Paraphrase the rules that govern selecting the fourth type of yarn: each item must have four different colors, each can have only two colors at most in natural fiber, and the two items must share two colors.

STEP 2: APPROACH STRATEGICALLY

Use the GMAT Core Competency of Attention to the Right Detail as you consider the rules governing each item. The hat already has two types of yarn made of natural fiber, so the fourth color there must be acrylic. The blanket only has one type of yarn with natural fibers, so its fourth color could be either natural (cotton or wool) or acrylic. The items already share one color, so at least one color picked to finish the items must be the same as another color in the other item in order for there to be two shared colors. On Test Day, you’d quickly paraphrase this info on your notepad.

Keep the rules in mind as you evaluate the choices. For the first column, you want to pick a style of yarn that would work for either item individually, but not work for both, and for the second column you want to pick one that can’t be used in either. You already noted that an acrylic yarn would work in either item. Gray acrylic would be permissible for the hat, but not for the blanket, since that item already has gray wool yarn. Thus, gray acrylic is the answer for the first column. If the fourth color in each item were brown, orange, white, or black, then each would have four distinct colors and two shared colors. So brown, orange, white, or black acrylic yarn could be used in both items, which means they’re incorrect for both columns. Red cotton can’t be used for the hat, since it already has two wool yarns, and it can’t be used for the blanket since it already has red acrylic yarn; this is the right answer for the second
column.

Pay close attention to the column headings when filling in the answer choices. The correct answer for the first column is gray acrylic, and the correct answer for the second column is red cotton.

himisc · Answer

Is it an GMAT official question?

Posted from my mobile device

Sajjad1994 · Answer

No! This question belong to Kaplan GMAT.

Either the hat or blanket, but not both	Neither hat nor blanket	Possible yarn styles
		Brown acrylic
		Orange acrylic
		Gray acrylic
		White acrylic
		Red cotton
		Black acrylic

A father is planning to knit a striped hat and a checkered blanket for

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Hat:	Blanket:
Green wool	Red acrylic
Yellow wool	Gray cotton
Blue acrylic	Blue acrylic

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