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)

How many vowels will be to the left of the middle letter?

The correct option is 3.

Let us solve the step-by-step puzzle given in the passage to transform the word and find the number of vowels to the left of the middle letter.

Step 1: Identify the original word and its length.
Original Word: ELECTROCARDIOGRAPH
Total number of letters = 18

Step 2: Take the first half of the letters and reverse their order.
The first half consists of the first 9 letters (18 / 2 = 9):
First 9 letters: E L E C T R O C A
Reversed first half: A C O R T C E L E
Second half (unchanged): R D I O G R A P H
Sequence after Step 2: A C O R T C E L E R D I O G R A P H

Step 3: Place the last but one letter of the original word at the very beginning.
The original word is ELECTROCARDIOGRAPH.
The last letter is 'H', and the last but one (penultimate) letter is 'P'.
Placing 'P' at the very beginning:
Sequence after Step 3: P A C O R T C E L E R D I O G R A P H

Step 4: Add the letter 'S' at the end.
Final transformed word: P A C O R T C E L E R D I O G R A P H S
Total length of the final word = 18 + 1 (from Step 3) + 1 (from Step 4) = 20 letters.

Step 5: Find the middle letter and count vowels to its left.
For a word of 20 letters, the positions are 1 to 20.
The middle letters are the 10th and 11th letters, or taking the 10th letter as the middle position of the first half.
Let us write out the positions of the final sequence:
1: P
2: A (Vowel)
3: C
4: O (Vowel)
5: R
6: T
7: C
8: E (Vowel)
9: L
10: E (Middle letter)
11: R
12: D
13: I
14: O
15: G
16: R
17: A
18: P
19: H
20: S

The 10th letter is 'E'. The letters to the left of the 10th letter (positions 1 through 9) are:
P, A, C, O, R, T, C, E, L

The vowels among these letters are:
1. A (at position 2)
2. O (at position 4)
3. E (at position 8)

Therefore, there are exactly 3 vowels to the left of the middle letter.