How to do 161st question?

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1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Mar 24, 2018

I would have rewritten the question as follows...

Which of the following is NOT true about the propensity of electrons being lost or gained by an atom upon forming an ionic bond?

#1)# The propensity is high for an atom that has become a small cation.
#2)# The propensity is high for an atom that has become a small anion.
#3)# The propensity is high for an atom that has formed a cation with #18# valence electrons.
#4)# All of the above are wrong.

And the way #(3)# is written, if you change the wording to ... that IS a cation ... it REVERSES the conclusion and makes #(3)# "correct"...

This is such a bad question... This so-called "electrovalency" is simply the number of electrons gained or lost upon formation of an ionic bond... not that I have ever heard of it...

...But the answer choices suggest that it is not the NUMBER of electrons gained/lost that is "favoured", but the PROPENSITY to gain/lose electrons... I guess the question writer is an English nonnative...

The PROPENSITY to lose electrons WAS favored due to forming cations with noble gas configurations. Thus we eliminate #(3)# and #(4)#... Small anions that form due to high PROPENSITY of gaining electrons ARE charge-dense and WERE electronegative. Thus we eliminate #(2)#...

Does your "answer key" say #(1)#? Or did I join the other #100%# of people who will get this badly-written trick question wrong?

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