Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. In a language laboratory, students were given an interesting puzzle involving the word ”ELECTROCARDIOGRAPH.” The teacher explained that such exercises not only test logical skills but also sharpen attention to detail. According to the challenge, the word had to undergo a series of transformations.

First, the class was asked to take the first half of the letters, reverse their order and make the arrangement of letters look quite different from the original. Next, the students were told to identify the last but one letter of the original word and place it at the very beginning, a step that changed the opening appearance of the sequence completely. Finally, as a finishing touch, they had to add the letter ’S’ at the end. Following these steps carefully would lead them to the correct transformed word, and only those who adhered to each condition in the exact order could solve the puzzle successfully. (150 words)

Which of the two vowels will be adjoining each other?

The correct option is IO.

Let us solve the puzzle step-by-step following the instructions given in the passage.

Original Word:
ELECTROCARDIOGRAPH

Let us count the total number of letters in the word "ELECTROCARDIOGRAPH":
Total number of letters = 18 letters.

Step 1: Take the first half of the letters and reverse their order.
The first half consists of the first 9 letters:
First half (9 letters) = E L E C T R O C A
Reversing this sequence gives: A C O R T C E L E
The second half remains unchanged: R D I O G R A P H
Sequence after Step 1 = A C O R T C E L E R D I O G R A P H

Step 2: Identify the last but one letter of the original word and place it at the very beginning.
In the original word "ELECTROCARDIOGRAPH", the last letter is 'H', and the "last but one letter" (penultimate letter) is 'P'.
Placing 'P' at the very beginning of the sequence from Step 1 gives:
Sequence after Step 2 = P A C O R T C E L E R D I O G R A P H

Step 3: Add the letter 'S' at the end.
Adding 'S' to the end of the sequence gives:
Final Transformed Word = P A C O R T C E L E R D I O G R A P H S

Now, let us examine the adjacent vowels in this transformed sequence:
- 'A' and 'O' are separated by 'C'.
- 'E' and 'E' are separated by 'L'.
- 'I' and 'O' appear right next to each other in the segment "... D I O G ...".

Therefore, the two vowels adjoining each other are I and O (IO).