Which of the following signs prohibits parking on even days of the month?

Explanation

Sign number 5, with two vertical bars on a blue field.

The last two signs in the picture are a pair differing only in the number of vertical bars on them: one bar means parking is prohibited on odd days of the month, two bars mean parking is prohibited on even days. The way to remember it is that same count; count the bars and match that number to whether the day is odd or even. Sign number 5 has two bars, so it closes the even days.

The logic of these two signs is keeping one side of the street alternately clear. On narrow city streets, if both sides are permanently full of parked cars, the width available for traffic falls to one lane, ambulances and fire engines cannot get through, and cleaning and snow clearance become effectively impossible. With these two signs, one side of the street is free each day without banning parking altogether.

The exam trap is that all five signs in the picture look alike and the mind is drawn to the supplementary plates beneath signs 2 and 3. But those plates speak of working days and holidays, not of the date being odd or even. The only place where the date of the day matters is those vertical bars inside the sign itself.

• Sign 1 prohibits parking with no reference to the date; every day of the month, odd or even. • The supplementary plate under sign 2 specifies working days and has nothing to do with the date being odd or even. • The supplementary plate under sign 3 relates to holidays and weekends, not to the date of the day. • Sign 4 has only one vertical bar, that is precisely the reverse: parking is prohibited on odd days of the month.

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