Verbal Reasoning - Mental Ability Questions

Here the series has mixed two series.
n m l k...! reverse alphabet
o p q r ...! forward alphabet
So the letter before k is j and after that letter after r is s and so on...

Let’s break it down. The product of their ages is 72. So what are the possible choices?

2, 2, 18 – sum(2, 2, 18) = 22
2, 4, 9 – sum(2, 4, 9) = 15
2, 6, 6 – sum(2, 6, 6) = 14
2, 3, 12 – sum(2, 3, 12) = 17
3, 4, 6 – sum(3, 4, 6) = 13
3, 3, 8 – sum(3, 3, 8 ) = 14
1, 8, 9 – sum(1,8,9) = 18
1, 3, 24 – sum(1, 3, 24) = 28
1, 4, 18 – sum(1, 4, 18) = 23
1, 2, 36 – sum(1, 2, 36) = 39
1, 6, 12 – sum(1, 6, 12) = 19

The sum of their ages is the same as your birth date. That could be anything from 1 to 31 but the fact that Jack was unable to find out the ages, it means there are two or more combinations with the same sum. From the choices above, only two of them are possible now.

2, 6, 6 – sum(2, 6, 6) = 14
3, 3, 8 – sum(3, 3, 8 ) = 14

Since the eldest kid is taking piano lessons, we can eliminate combination 1 since there are two eldest ones. The answer is 3, 3 and 8.

As the sentence talks about the past it is apt to say. 'Had you been more careful ...'.

The dog was sitting under the table waiting to catch the ball that was thrown towards him by his master.

'Autonomy' means personal independence. Hence, the word 'dependence' is farthest in meaning to the given word 'Autonomy'.