Aaron, Darren, Karen, Maren, and Sharon rode on a small train that has five cars that seat one person each. Maren sat in the last car. Aaron sat directly behind Sharon. Darren sat in one of the cars in front of Aaron. At least one person sat between Karen and Darren. Who sat in the middle car?

A. Aaron

B. Darren

C. Karen

D. Maren

E. Sharon

1. 2020 AMC 8 官方解析

It is given that Maren sat in the last car, Aaron sat directly behind Sharon, and Darren sat in one of the cars in front of Aaron. Based on these three conditions, the possible seating arrangements are:
D S A _ M
_ D S A M
D _ S A M
The last condition states that Karen and Darren did not sit in adjacent cars, which eliminates the second and third possibilities. That leaves the first arrangement as the only one that satisfies all of the conditions, with Karen sitting in the fourth car and Aaron in the middle car.
由题可以知道 Maren 坐在最后一节车厢中，Aaron 坐在 Sharon 的后面，Darren 坐在 Aaron 前面的一节车厢中. 根据这三个条件，可能的座位安排是:
D S A _ M
_ D S A M
D _ S A M
最后一个条件指出，Karen 和Darren 没有坐在相邻的车厢中，这排除了第二种和第三种情况. 这使得第一种情况成为唯一满足所有条件的安排，其中Karen 坐在第四节车厢，而Aaron坐在正中间的车厢.