I would agree with you, except that I would say the reasoning problem itself not only utilizes language, but in fact hinges entirely on the language.
There's a bit of spatial knowledge involved to understand that you're walking in a circle around the north pole. But the reasoning needed to get the answer to the question is based on the language.
Specifically, the language tells us that our starting point is at the north pole. Then the language of the 4th point states "to pass your starting point", which has two meanings - to cross over the starting point (as in passing the finish line in a race) or to pass by it off to the side (as in passing a store as you're traveling along a road). But since we're walking in a circle around it, we'll never pass it in either sense of the word.
Had it used different language like "How far did you have to walk to complete a circle around your starting point?" then the answer would be quite different, as would the reasoning.
But that wasn't the language used. So the language completely determines the answer and the reasoning involved, including whether you even need to think about distance.
One could also argue that all four of the answer options are wrong, partly since 1km is not a very far distance, and therefore you were always close to your starting point, depending on your ideal of 'close'. But more specifically simply because the language saying you "never came close" to it would be nonsense because you started right at your starting point, and of course can't get much closer than that. So again you don't even really need to account for distance. The language alone determines it.
> But since we're walking in a circle around it, we'll never pass it in either sense of the word.
Are we, though? Or did we start on a great circle around the Earth from the random point 1km from the north pole?
It depends on whether you assume someone has in mind a "straight line" following a map, or what they'd actually experience as a straight line given the scale of the Earth.
There's a bit of spatial knowledge involved to understand that you're walking in a circle around the north pole. But the reasoning needed to get the answer to the question is based on the language.
Specifically, the language tells us that our starting point is at the north pole. Then the language of the 4th point states "to pass your starting point", which has two meanings - to cross over the starting point (as in passing the finish line in a race) or to pass by it off to the side (as in passing a store as you're traveling along a road). But since we're walking in a circle around it, we'll never pass it in either sense of the word.
Had it used different language like "How far did you have to walk to complete a circle around your starting point?" then the answer would be quite different, as would the reasoning.
But that wasn't the language used. So the language completely determines the answer and the reasoning involved, including whether you even need to think about distance.
One could also argue that all four of the answer options are wrong, partly since 1km is not a very far distance, and therefore you were always close to your starting point, depending on your ideal of 'close'. But more specifically simply because the language saying you "never came close" to it would be nonsense because you started right at your starting point, and of course can't get much closer than that. So again you don't even really need to account for distance. The language alone determines it.