I'm just as confused by the lack of instructions.
You should probably have made that clear at the very beginning of the post; when I read it I first assumed you had simply neglected to tell us the instructions.
This test, as I understand it, is the U.S. military "entrance exam"
In that case, I suspect it's probably supposed to be a test of physical intuition -- or more to the point, of whether you're the kind of person who spends enough brain cycles on intuitive physical modeling in order to suspect that's what's being tested.
In which case, A probably does make the most sense, since it seems to represent the most "equilibrium-like" (lowest potential energy) situation, assuming what is being represented is a box with an object tied to it via a string, viewed from the side (not above or below).
Why assume that the rectangle is stationary and the star moves? Why ignore how things are attached? Why not think of them falling out of an airplane and choose D as clearly superior?
I don't think "it's probably supposed to be a test of physical intuition" is all that plausible. So I just googled, and it looks like I'm right. It seems to fall into the "assembling objects" category.
I was linked to this on another forum. No instructions were given, apparently - just this picture. What's the deal?
It seems to me the answer is clearly C, not A as the test indicates; and the members in the original thread appear to agree. However, attempted justifications of A have been made, none of which are very convincing to me - mainly because if there are no instructions and an obvious answer, there's not really any benefit for them to reward a different interpretation, which would almost certainly involve arbitrary assumptions regarding the rules they really want you to apply.
Trick questions on exams seem to rely on failure to pay close attention to instructions, or insufficiently rigorously apply rules; when there are no instructions, what justification would anyone have for not choosing the most obvious interpretation? Any could be right!
What do the geniuses here at MoreRight think?