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But maybe it’s really smart Helen. Stunned by her rejection she seeks feedback (which in practice she would be unlikely to get, but let us pass over that). She is told that she failed to grasp the rule implicit in the series. ‘Not so’, she bravely replies. ‘I clearly spotted the rule – it is add by double the number of digits in the next whole number after each one that is supplied.’

Helen continues, ‘My rule clearly explains all the cases provided. The whole number after ‘1’ is ‘2’ which is a one-digit number. The next number in the series ‘3’ was generated by adding 2 to ‘1’. And so on until we get to ‘9’. The next whole number after ‘9’ is ‘10’. But ‘10’ is a two-digit number. So the rule requires that I add double the number of digits in ‘10’ which means adding 4 to ‘9’, which generates ‘13’, and so on to yield ‘17’ and ‘21’. So please tell me kind sir, where did I go wrong?’ At this point the human resources officer remembers he has another urgent appointment.

‘Not so fast’ says Leslie, who supplied the following answers.

1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19.

‘I picked up the real rule, and I should not have been scored down. Helen got the wrong answers because she got the rule wrong, but the correct rule is not the one you claim it is,’ insists Leslie. ‘The rule implicit in the series is, ‘Supply the next prime number.’ (Note: A prime number is a whole number divisible without remainder only by itself and 1.)

‘Well you can’t be right Leslie’ declares Mr. Smartypants, the human resources officer. ‘If you look at the numbers supplied you will see that they do not include ‘2’ (which is a prime number), and they do include ‘9’ (which is not a prime number, being divisible without remainder by a number other than itself and ‘1’; namely ‘3’). ‘So how do you explain that?’

‘It’s very simple,’ replies Leslie. ‘The non-inclusion of ‘2’ is obviously a careless oversight by whoever set the test, while the inclusion of ‘9’ is obviously a misprint. You people should be more careful than to subject people to incompetently prepared tests.’

‘But,’ splutters Mr. Smartypants, ‘why should I prefer your rule Leslie to Sue’s (which is obvious, simple, and easy to use) or even to Helen’s (which is far more complex and inelegant but at least it is consistent with the data supplied)?

‘But you just don’t get it,’ declares Leslie. ‘The concept of a prime number is a much more powerful concept, of great explanatory value in arithmetic, with innumerable applications, than your and Sue’s pathetic trivial rule, or Helen’s inelegant and awkward rule, which incidentally has no useful application that I can see. While I acknowledge my rule is not exactly compliant with the data supplied, we all know that it is easy to fa本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。