How many meaningful words can be formed from the 3rd, 5th, 8th and 12th letter from the left end of the word FERMENTATION. If no word is formed, then mark the answer as @ and if more than three words are formed, then mark the answer as #, else choose the correct answer from given options?

To find the number of meaningful English words that can be formed, let us first identify the letters at the specified positions from the left end of the word FERMENTATION.

Let us write down the letter corresponding to each position from the left end:
1st letter: F
2nd letter: E
3rd letter: R
4th letter: M
5th letter: E
6th letter: N
7th letter: T
8th letter: A
9th letter: T
10th letter: I
11th letter: O
12th letter: N

From the list above, we extract the letters at the required positions:
3rd letter = R
5th letter = E
8th letter = A
12th letter = N

The set of letters obtained is {R, E, A, N}.

Now, we check how many meaningful English words can be formed using each of these four letters exactly once:
1. EARN (meaning: to receive money or reward in return for work or service)
2. NEAR (meaning: at or to a short distance away)

No other standard meaningful English words can be formed using these four letters. Therefore, exactly 2 meaningful words can be formed.

Thus, the correct answer is 2.