ITPEC IP October 2024 Question 2

(Sapporo OR Hakodate) AND Japanese restaurant — either city is acceptable, but every result must be a Japanese restaurant.

The search has two separate criteria. The location criterion accepts either of two alternatives, so the cities are joined with OR: a restaurant is in Sapporo or in Hakodate, never in both. The category criterion must hold for every result, so it is joined to the location group with AND. The parentheses make the OR group evaluate first.

Answer (c)

Why not others:

• •(a) — AND between the cities demands a restaurant located in Sapporo and Hakodate at the same time, so it finds almost nothing
• •(b) — the outer OR returns every Japanese restaurant in any city, plus anything matching both city names whatever it is
• •(d) — ORs all three terms, returning any business in either city and any Japanese restaurant anywhere

Key rule: Join alternatives within one criterion with OR, join criteria that must all hold with AND, and use parentheses so the OR group is evaluated first.

Basic Theory · AI-written, may contain errors