Blood Relations: previous-year questions

Answer: (D) Uncle

The key's answer is (D) Uncle. An uncle does appear in the passage: C's father is A's uncle, and D's father is that uncle's brother. Note: D is one of the two daughters, so she cannot be an uncle; her father is an uncle of A, which makes D A's cousin, option (A), the same relation the key gives for C in Q61.

Answer: (D) Cousin

C is the only son of A's uncle, so C is A's cousin. F is E's sister and E is A's brother, so F is A's sister and C is F's cousin too. C is a child of the same generation, so 'uncle' and 'son' are impossible, and C's father is not F's father, so C is not her brother.

Answer: (A) Mother-in-law

X is the wife of Z, and P is the mother of X, so P is the mother of Z's wife, i.e. Z's mother-in-law. The details about Y (P's brother) and Q (P's husband) are extra information put in to distract; they would make Y the maternal uncle of X, and Q the father of X and father-in-law of Z. In blood-relation questions, pick out only the links that connect the two persons asked about, and draw a small family tree if needed.

Answer: (A) 3

Work out the gender of each member. A is a father, so A is male and his spouse B is female. E is a granddaughter (female). F has a husband, so F is female. C is A's brother (male) and D is C's son (male). Males are A, C and D = 3; females are B, E and F. Tip: in blood-relation sums, mark each person M or F as soon as a word like father, brother, son or husband appears.

Answer: (A) R is sister of T.

P and Q are wife and husband, and R is their daughter (R is called a grand-daughter, so R is female). S is Q's mother and also T's grandmother, so T is taken to be another child of Q; hence R is the sister of T. Option B fails because R is female, and option C fails because Q is a husband, i.e. the son (not daughter) of S. The official key is A, on the usual assumption that T is Q's child.

Answer: (B) E

The husbands are A, C and E, so the wives are B, D and F. B's husband must be A, C or E. B and C are cousins, so C cannot be B's husband, and we are told B is not the wife of A. Only E remains, so E is B's husband. (By the same reasoning D, also a cousin of C, must marry A, and C's wife is F.)

Answer: (B) Uncle

'My daughter's father' is Somenath himself, so 'the father of my daughter's father' is Somenath's father. The gentleman's only brother is therefore Somenath's father, which makes the gentleman Somenath's paternal uncle. He cannot be the father (he is the father's brother), nor the grandfather or a brother-in-law. Technique: decode the chain from its end backwards, replacing each phrase by a single person.

Answer: (D) Grandmother

PSC's final key 'D' gives 'Grandmother'. This follows if 'whose father is my son' is taken to describe the girl in the picture: the girl's father is Meghna's son, so Meghna is the girl's paternal grandmother (and Jhuma is Meghna's great-granddaughter). If 'whose' is instead read as referring to Jhuma - grammatically the more natural reading - Jhuma's father is Meghna's son, the girl is Meghna's daughter-in-law, and Meghna would be her mother-in-law, which is not among the options. In the exam, choose the reading that yields one of the given options. Ambiguous wording: on the more natural reading ('whose' = Jhuma) Meghna is the girl's mother-in-law, which is not an option; PSC's final key gives (D) Grandmother, which requires 'whose' to refer to the girl. Also, the earlier version of this file had option (D) as 'None of these'; it is corrected to 'Grandmother' as printed in the official Set C booklet.

Answer: (B) Maternal uncle

Z is grandmother of A (via C); P, being Z's son, is C's brother — that is, A's mother's brother, i.e. A's maternal uncle.

Answer: (D) Niece and Uncle

A is the father of B, and F is B's sister, so F is A's daughter. C is A's brother, so C is the brother of F's father, i.e. F's paternal uncle. Hence F and C are niece and uncle. The information about M (father of A and C) is extra and is not needed to answer.

Answer: (A) Sister-in-law

Since Q is R's wife and P is Q's sister, P is R's wife's sister — making P R's sister-in-law.

Answer: (D) Nephew

B is A's brother, C is B's daughter (making C A's niece), and D is C's brother — so D is also B's son, meaning D is A's nephew.

Answer: (C) E

A, C, E are husbands. B is not wife of A. B, C, D are cousins — C cannot be B's husband (they're cousins). So B is wife of E. Thus E is the husband of B.

Answer: (C) 3

F's husband has died — F is a widow (female). E is granddaughter of F → F is a grandmother (female). A is father of E (male). C is brother of A (male). D is only son of C (male). B is wife of A (female). Male members: A, C, D = 3 males.

Answer: (B) Grand daughter

Rajan's mother has only one daughter — the girl's mother. So the girl's mother is Rajan's sister. Rajan's mother is therefore the girl's maternal grandmother. The girl in the photograph is the granddaughter of Rajan's mother.