How many pairs of letters are there in the word 'MASCULINE' which has as many letters between them in the word as in English alphabetical series (both in forward and backward direction)?

To find the number of letter pairs in the word MASCULINE that have the same number of letters between them as in the English alphabetical series (in both forward and backward directions), let's first map each letter to its corresponding numerical position in the alphabet:

M = 13
A = 1
S = 19
C = 3
U = 21
L = 12
I = 9
N = 14
E = 5

Now, let's analyze the pairs in both forward and backward directions:

1. Forward Direction:

• A – C: Letter 'A' is at position 1 and 'C' is at position 3. In the word, there is 1 letter ('S') between them, which matches the 1 letter ('B') between them in the alphabet.
• S – U: Letter 'S' is at position 19 and 'U' is at position 21. In the word, there is 1 letter ('C') between them, matching the 1 letter ('T') in the alphabet.
• L – N: Letter 'L' is at position 12 and 'N' is at position 14. In the word, there is 1 letter ('I') between them, matching the 1 letter ('M') in the alphabet.

2. Backward Direction:

• N – S: Moving backward from 'N' (14) to 'S' (19), there are 4 letters ('I', 'L', 'U', 'C') between them in the word, which matches the 4 letters ('O', 'P', 'Q', 'R') between them in the alphabet.
• E – M: Moving backward from 'E' (5) to 'M' (13), there are 7 letters ('N', 'I', 'L', 'U', 'C', 'S', 'A') between them in the word, which matches the 7 letters ('F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J', 'K', 'L') in the alphabet.

Thus, there are a total of 5 such pairs of letters (A-C, S-U, L-N, N-S, and E-M).

The correct answer is Five.