Official Explanation
Create a table to solve this proportions question. It should look something like this:
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The question stem tells us how many cars were sold last year. Because it tells us that half the cars sold were red, it also tells us the number of blue cars sold last year.
Statement (1) tells us:
“The dealership sold three times as many blue coupes as red sedans last year.” Enter this information into the table in algebraic terms:
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Because two unknowns—red coupes and blue sedans—remain,
Statement (1) does not provide enough information to solve the problem. The correct answer is BCE.
Use the same procedure to test
Statement (2): “The dealership sold half as many blue sedans as blue coupes last year”:
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Again, two unknowns remain. This time, though, we have all the information we need to write a solvable equation. We know that 2x + x = 4,500. Therefore x equals 1,500. We now know the following:
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Unfortunately, this still isn’t enough information to answer the question.
The answer is (C) or (E). Combine the information from the two statements.
Statement (2) tells us that the dealership sold 3,000 blue coupes; combined with
Statement (1), this tells us that the dealership sold 1,000 red sedans. We can now subtract 1,000 from 4,500 to determine that the dealership sold 3,500 red coupes. Therefore, it sold 6,500 coupes last year.
The correct answer is (C).