Thanks for the question! This is a great question because it shows the importance of using previous work to help answer questions, and the importance of staying organized and keeping our previous hypotheticals, since a hypothetical from the previous question really helps cut time short on this one. “Could be true” questions only need one possible instance to be the correct answer choice, so having those from previous questions can cut time spent on these kinds of questions to basically zero. “Must be true” questions, on the other hand, have to be true in all possible hypotheticals—one contradictory instance means that an answer choice isn’t necessarily true.
Now let’s turn to this question specifically. Clearly, we can eliminate (E), since if P is in 6, then H has to be in 7, which can’t be possible since H has to be next to M. We can similarly eliminate (C), since if J is in 6, H has to be in 7, meaning it’s not next to M. If we work through (A) and (B), we’ll see that there’s not enough room to keep J, P, and S away from each other.
Now let’s take a look at (D). Say P is in slot 1. Well, we could put N in slot 2, and stick M and H at the end in slots 6 and 7. Then, we could put S in slot 3, and then stick G and J in slots 4 and 5 respectively. So in the end, we’d have:
P N S G J M H
And as we can see, this doesn’t violate any of the rules, and so it could be true. Thus, (D) is the correct answer.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.
