Q16

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Can someone please explain Q16 and Q18 to me? For Q16, i get c as my answer and for Q18, i get d.

Thanks.

[ManhattanPrepLSAT2]

Here are the rules in shorthand --

Sentence = 5 "words"
Each word = at least 4 letters

Successive words - will do exactly one of the following --
- delete one letter
- add one letter
- replace one letter
- and none of these things can happen twice in a row

At most 3 words start with same letter

For this q,

If the first word has 9 letters, and we want the minimum # of letters for the fourth word, we can...

First delete a letter, so our second word has 8 letters.
Then replace a letter (remember, we can't delete twice in a row), so that our third word still has 8 letters.
Then delete a letter, so our fourth word has 7 letters.

That leads us to (D).