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Bunuel
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John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated 30 Mar 2016, 04:20
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Difficulty:

5% (low)

Question Stats:

96% (00:51) correct 4% (01:33) wrong based on 168 sessions

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John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary, and Betty's age is now 7/8 of John's. How old is Betty?

A. 24
B. 26
C. 28
D. 30
E. 32
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C
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John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated 31 Mar 2016, 05:17
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Bunuel
John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary, and Betty's age is now 7/8 of John's. How old is Betty?

A. 24
B. 26
C. 28
D. 30
E. 32
Show more

Assume Betty's age on marriage = x years.
John's age on marriage = 27

John's age after 5 years = 32 years.
Betty's age after 5 years = x + 5

Given: x + 5 = 7/8 (32) = 28
Therefore Betty's current age = 28
Option C
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John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated 24 Jan 2018, 20:31
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Bunuel
John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary, and Betty's age is now 7/8 of John's. How old is Betty?

A. 24
B. 26
C. 28
D. 30
E. 32

Assume Betty's age on marriage = x years.
John's age on marriage = 27

John's age after 5 years = 32 years.
Betty's age after 5 years = x + 5

Given: x + 5 = 7/8 (32) = 28

Therefore Betty's current age = 28
Option C
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I may just be blanking here, I did everything exactly as above, but at the end I subtracted 5 to get x. Why is that wrong to do?
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John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated 24 Jan 2018, 20:47
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Hi rnz - the problem is asking for Betty's current age, which is 5 years after her marriage to John. The poster above assumed x is equivalent to Betty's age when she got married (which was 5 year ago).

Since the problem is looking for Betty's age 5 years after she got married, the problem is looking for x + 5. So there is no need to subtract 5 to get x. Let me know if that makes sense.
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John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated 25 Jan 2018, 05:52
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dontgiveup2020
Hi rnz - the problem is asking for Betty's current age, which is 5 years after her marriage to John. The poster above assumed x is equivalent to Betty's age when she got married (which was 5 year ago).

Since the problem is looking for Betty's age 5 years after she got married, the problem is looking for x + 5. So there is no need to subtract 5 to get x. Let me know if that makes sense.
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Yes, I see it now. Totally makes sense. Thank you!
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John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated 25 Jan 2018, 06:50
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Bunuel
John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary, and Betty's age is now 7/8 of John's. How old is Betty?

A. 24
B. 26
C. 28
D. 30
E. 32
Show more
John's age now is 32 years

Betty's present age is 28 years, answer will be (C)
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mygmat0101
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John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated 25 Jan 2018, 07:16
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Bunuel
John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary, and Betty's age is now 7/8 of John's. How old is Betty?

A. 24
B. 26
C. 28
D. 30
E. 32
Show more


Let the age of Betty be 'x' at the time of marriage.

Their ages at the time of 5th anniversary
John=27+5=32
Betty=x+5

It is that x+5= 7/8(32)= 28 years.

Hope it helped.
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John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated 29 Jan 2018, 10:34
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Bunuel
John was 27 years old when he married Betty. They just celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary, and Betty's age is now 7/8 of John's. How old is Betty?

A. 24
B. 26
C. 28
D. 30
E. 32
Show more

We see that John is now 27 + 5 = 32 years old. Letting B = Betty’s current age, we have:

32(7/8) = B

28 = B

Answer: C
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