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 Solution Key to the Second Round of 10th IMAS 2020/2021
Middle Primary Division

Questions 1 to 5, 4 marks each

1. Which of the following expressions has a value equal to 3?
（A） 2  0  2  1 （B） 2  0  2  1 （C） 2  0  2  1
（D） 2  0  2  1 （E） 2  0  2  1
【Suggested Solution】
Calculating them, we have 2  0  2  1  0  1  1, 2  0  2  1  2  2  4 ,
2  0  2  1  2  0  1  3 , 2  0  2  1  2  3  5 and 2  0  2  1  0  2  2 . Since
only the third option is equal to 3. So, the answer is (C).
Answer：（C）
2. Which among the choices has the same pattern as the figure shown below?
(Note: figure can be rotated but not flipped)

（A） （B） （C） （D） （E）

【Suggested Solution】
From the original figure, the four black circles located inside the large circle are
arranged in a clockwise direction from smallest to largest, while the four black circles
inside the large circle in options (A), (B), (C) and (D) are arranged from smallest to
largest, but in a counterclockwise direction. Thus, only the four black circles inside
the large circle in option (E) are arranged in a clockwise direction from smallest to
largest. So, the answer is (E).
Answer：（E）
3. Nelson has some number of apples and one pear that he must place in a straight
line on the table. If we start counting from left to right, the pear is located on the
12th position, while counting from right to left, the pear is located on the 18 th
position. How many fruits are there on the table?
（A）30 （B）29 （C）28 （D）22 （E）20
【Suggested Solution】
Counting from left to right, the pear is located on the 12th position, so we can
conclude that there are 11 apples on the left of the pear. Similarly, counting from right
to left, the pear is located on the 18th position, so we can conclude that there are 17
apples on the right of the pear. So, in total there are 11  17  1  29 fruits on the
table. So, the answer is (B).
Answer：（B）
4. Jack paved the sidewalk in the garden with tiles as shown in the figure below. If
the width of the sidewalk is 1 m, what is the total area, in m2, of the sidewalk?
23 m

17 m

13 m
（A）53 （B）104 （C）106 （D）221 （E）391
【Suggested Solution】
Divide the sidewalk into three sections of linear sidewalks as follows: upper
(horizontal), middle (vertical) and lower (horizontal) and the area of each section is
23  1  23 m2, 17  1  17 m2 and 13  1  13 m2, respectively. So, the total area of the
sidewalk is 23  17  13  53 m2. So, the answer is（A）.
Answer：（A）
5. What is the value of the expression 1234  2341  3412  4123 ?
（A）5555 （B）10000 （C）11110 （D）11111 （E）10101010
【Suggested Solution 1】
All four terms of the expression contain all four digits 1, 2, 3 and 4 exactly once and
each digit appears in each of the place values exactly once, so the value of the
original expression is equal to (1  2  3  4) 1111  11110 . So, the answer is (C).
【Suggested Solution 2】
1234  2341  3412  4123
 (1  2  3  4)  (1  2  3  4)  10  (1  2  3  4)  100  (1  2  3  4)  1000
 10  100  1000  10000
 11110
So, the answer is (C).
Answer：（C）
 Questions 6 to 13, 5 marks each
6. Using the dd/mm/yyyy (day/month/year) format, dates such as 01/02/2010 and
02/02/2020 are called "Palindromic Days" because the eight-digit numbers
formed (e.g. 01022010 and 02022020) are both palindromes. What is the
remainder when the “Palindromic Day” in the year 2021 is divided by 11?
(Note: A palindrome is a number which reads the same backward as forward.)
【Suggested Solution】
In the year 2021, the only “Palindromic Day” is 12/02/2021, so the eight-digit
number is 12022021. Using the divisibility of 11 rule, the difference between the sum
of all digits on odd placements and the sum of all digits on even placements of this
palindrome is (1  0  2  2)  (2  2  0  1)  0 . Hence, when it divided by 11, the
remainder is 0.
Answer：0
【Comments】
It can be seen that the digit form of a “Palindrome Day” is always in the form of
abcddcba , so the difference between the sum of all digits on odd placements and the
sum of all digits on even placements of this palindrome is
(a  c  d  b)  (b  d  c  a)  0 ,
therefore, the number of palindromes in this form is always a multiple of 11.
7. In the figure below, we use a thread to string some black and white pearls into a
straight line. Starting from the black pearl marked with an arrow, we move the
pearls one by one from left to right. How many pearls must be moved so that the
number of black pearls on the left is equal to the number of white pearls on the
right?

【Suggested Solution】
Judging from the number of black and white pearls in the diagram, there are 7 black
pearls on the left and 4 white pearls on the right. Now, starting from the black pearl
marked with an arrow, move the pearls one by one from left to right:
After the first move, there will be 6 black pearls on the left and 4 white pearls on the
right.
After the second move, there will be 5 black pearls on the left and 4 white pearls on
the right.
After the third move, there will be 5 black pearls on the left and 5 white pearls on the
right.
Continuing to do so will make the number of black pearls on the left less than the
number of white pearls on the right.
Therefore, after moving 3 pearls, the number of black pearls on the left is equal to the
number of white pearls on the right.
Answer：3 pearls
8. There are 3 air conditioning units in John's house and one new air conditioning
unit was installed over the summer. However, due to power limitations of his
electric meter, if all 4 air conditioners are turned on at the same time, the fuse
will overload, so only 3 of them can be turned on at the same time. So, in a 24
hour period over the summer, if 3 air-conditioning units are always turned on,
then at least how long is the most used air conditioning unit turned on?
【Suggested Solution 1】
To use the longest air conditioner for the least time, it is necessary to make the use
time of each air conditioner as evenly as possible. You might as well label these 4 air
conditioners as A, B, C, and D respectively, because it uses 3 units each time. It can
be seen that there are 4 combinations of 4 air conditioners, namely ABC, ABD, ACD,
and BCD. Therefore, each combination takes 24  4  6 hours on average in 24
hours. Since each air conditioner will appear in three combinations, each air
conditioner needs to be turned on for 18 hours. Even the one that has been used for
the longest time needs to be used for at least 18 hours.
【Suggested Solution 2】
To make the air conditioner that uses the longest time the least, it is necessary to
make the use time of each air conditioner as evenly as possible. If 3 air conditioners
are turned on at the same time, the total number of hours that all air conditioners are
turned on in 24 hours is 24  3  72 hours. Now that these hours are to be evenly
distributed to each air conditioner, each air conditioner must be turned on for
72  4  18 hours, that is, the air conditioner that has been used for the longest time
must be used for at least 18 hours.
The 24 hours are equally divided into four periods of A, B, C, and D, each of which is
6 hours. Turn the first air conditioner on for ABC for three times, turn on the second
air conditioner for three times on ABD, turn on the third air conditioner for three
times on ACD, and turn on the fourth air conditioner for three times on BCD. Each air
conditioner uses 18 hours.
Answer：18 hours
9. The figure on the right shows five circles that
intersect each other in pairs. If each circle has an area
of 6 m2 and each overlapping area of two intersecting
circles is 1 m2, then what is the total area, in m2,
covered by the five circles?

【Suggested Solution】
Since the area of each circle is 6 m2 and the overlapping area of each of two
intersecting circles is 1 m2, so the total area covered by the five circles in the figure is
equal to the area of the five circles minus the area of the five overlapping parts, so the
total area covered by the five circles is 5  6  5  1  30  5  25 m2.
Answer：25 m2
10. The figure on the right is made up of some
number of identical unit squares. Now, Alex
wants to form a bigger square by attaching unit
squares on the figure (without changing the
current figure). At least how many unit squares
must he use in order to do so?
【Suggested Solution】
Observe that in the figure, the longest length is 9 units, and the widest length is 6
units. Therefore, to form a square, its side length must be at least 9 units, that is, at
least 9  9  81 small square pieces are required. Since there are already 32 squares,
so at least 81  32  49 unit squares need to be added.

Answer：49 unit squares

11. Using some number of black and white balls of the same size, we arrange the
figures as shown in the diagram below. If Figure 1 uses 8 balls, Figure 2 uses 13
balls, Figure 3 uses 20 balls and so on. How many balls are there in Figure 10?

Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4

【Suggested Solution 1】
Observe that on first four figures, it can be deduced that there are 10  2  12 balls
on each side of the large equilateral triangle formed by the white balls in Figure 10.
Then there are two black balls outside the two ends of the third column of the big
triangle formed by white balls and above the big triangle formed by white balls is a
small equilateral triangle formed by black balls, with 10  1  9 balls on each side.
So, in Figure 10, there are a total of
(1  2  3  ...  11  12)  2  (1  2  3  ...  8  9)  78  2  45  125 balls.
【Suggested Solution 2】
Observe that on first four figures, we can see that the total number of balls in the
Figure 2 is 5 more than the total number of balls in Figure 1, the total number of balls
in the Figure 3 is 7 more than the total balls in Figure 2, the total number of balls in
the Figure 4 is 9 more than the total balls in Figure 3, … , the total number of balls in
the Figure n is 2n  1 more than the total balls in Figure n  1 . So, the total number
of balls in Figure 10 is 5  7  9  11  13  15  17  19  21  117 more than the total
number of balls in Figure 1, therefore, in Figure 10, there are a total of 8  117  125
balls.
Answer：125 balls
12. The diagram below shows seven rooms that are numbered from 1 to 7 such that
each room has a door connected to any of its adjacent rooms. Starting from room
1, our goal is to reach room 7, by passing through other rooms. If you can only
move to a room with the larger number, then how many different routes are
there?
2 4 6

1 3 5 7

【Suggested Solution】
To reach room 2, you can only walk in from room 1, so there is only 1 route.
To reach room 3, you can walk in from room 1 or 2, so there are 1  1  2 routes in
total.
To reach room 4, you can walk in from room 2 or 3, so there are 1  2  3 routes in
total.
To reach room 5, you can walk in from room 3 or 4, so there are 2  3  5 routes in
total.
To reach room 6, you can walk in from room 4 or 5, so there are 3  5  8 routes in
total.
To reach room 7, you can walk in from room 6 or 7, so there are 5  8  13 routes in
total.
The answer can be obtained by marking the number on the graph as follows.

2 4 6
1 3 8

1 3 5 7
1 2 5 13

Answer：13 routes
13. Fill in the letters a, b, c, d and e in each of the cells of the 5  5 table shown
below such that each letter appears exactly once in each row and column. What
letter should be placed in the cell where the "☆" is located?

a b
a
☆ d
b e
e d
【Suggested Solution】
For easier convention, label the columns into A, B, C, D and E and label the rows as 1,
2, 3, 4 and 5 as shown below:
1 2 3 4 5
A a b
B a
C ☆ d
D b e
E e d
From the conditions of the problem, it is known that a, b, d and e cannot be filled in
the cell A3, so the letter c must be filled in.
Because B3 cannot be filled with a, c, d and e , therefore it is b, so E3 can only be
filled with a.
Because E1 cannot be filled with a, b, d and e it must be filled with c, so E4 can only
be filled with b.
1 2 3 4 5
A a b c
B b a
C ☆ d
D b e
E c e a b d
Because C1 cannot be filled with a, b, c and d, it must be filled with e, so B1 can only
be filled with d.
Because B2 cannot be filled with a, b, d and e, so it must be filled with c, and we
know that B4 can only be filled in with e.
Because C2 cannot be filled with b, c, d, and e, so a must be filled in, so D2 can only
be filled in with d.
 1 2 3 4 5
A a b c
B d c b e a
C e a d
D b d e
E c e a b d
Then because A4 cannot be filled with a, b, c and e, so it must be filled with d, so A5
can only be filled with e.
Finally, because C4 cannot be filled with a, b, d and e, it must be filled with c.
Therefore, C5 can only be filled with b, D4 can only be filled with a, D5 can only be
filled with c.
Completing the table, we can see that the cell with "☆" should be filled with the a.
1 2 3 4 5
A a b c d e
B d c b e a
C e a d c b
D b d e a c
E c e a b d
Answer：a

Questions 14 to 15, 20 marks each

(Detailed solutions are needed for these two problems)

14. If 2021 is expressed as a sum of 100 prime numbers, where the largest prime
number used must be as small as possible, then what is the smallest possible value
of the largest prime number among these 100 prime numbers? Give an example
that satisfies these conditions.
【Suggested Solution】
Observe that all prime numbers are odd expect for the number “2”. Therefore, from
the parity of these numbers, it is known that when the number of odd numbers is odd,
its sum is also odd.
Because 2021 is an odd number, it must be divided into an even number of prime 2
and an odd number of odd prime numbers. So, in order to make the largest prime
number in this set as small as possible, we have to make take the odd prime numbers
as small as possible.
Now, since 2021  100  20  21 , and the smallest prime number greater than 20 is 23,
so there must be a prime number not less than 23 in the 100 prime numbers,
otherwise the sum will not be greater than 19 100  1900 , so we have to use the
prime number 23 as much as possible.
Now, we consider the case where 2021  23  87  20 . In this scenario, we can use
up to eighty-seven 23s, but the minimum of the remaining 100  87  13 prime
numbers is 2  13  26  20 , doesn’t meet the conditions.
Now, consider the case where we will be using eight-six 23s, which leaves us with
2021  86  23  43 . The remaining 14 prime numbers whose sum is 43, we can use
the following scenario: one 2, twelve 3s and one 5.
Therefore, among these 100 prime numbers, the smallest value of the largest prime
number is 23.
Answer：23
【Marking Scheme】
 Explain that 2021 must be a split into an even number of prime 2 and an odd
number of odd prime numbers. .............................................................. 5 points
 Show that there must be a prime number not less than 23 among the 100 prime
numbers .................................................................................................... 5 points
 Conclude that the minimum value of the largest prime number is 23 ..... 5 points
 Give an example that meets the conditions .............................................. 5 points

15. The two figures below are composed of small equilateral triangles of the same
size. We want to put several pieces of the parallelogram cardboard (which can be
rotated or flipped that is shown on the left) into the equilateral triangle grid that is
shown on the right without overlapping each other. The sides of these
parallelogram cardboards are required to be placed along the grid lines of the
equilateral triangle grid and cannot exceed the sides of it. What is the maximum
number of pieces of parallelogram cardboard that can be placed into the
triangular grid?
Justify your answer and show one way to place the cardboards.

【Suggested Solution】
Colour the large equilateral triangle grid in black and white as shown in the left figure
below, and observe that there are 36 black triangles and 28 white triangles. From here,
we can see that Each piece will always cover two gray triangles and two
white triangles, Therefore, you can put up to 28  2  14 pieces of the parallelogram
cardboard as shown in the left picture below. The picture below on the right shows
one possible example on how to place the cardboards.
【Marking Scheme】
 To colour the large equilateral triangle grids into black and white
................................................................................................................ 5 points
 Observe that each piece of cardboard will cover two black triangles and two
white triangles......................................................................................... 5 points
 Observe that there are 36 black triangles and 28 white triangles
(or a difference of 8) ............................................................................... 5 points
 Claim that a maximum of 14 pieces can be put in and a coverage method that
meets this maximum value is given ....................................................... 5 points