At a craft fair, Dana paid $4 for one notebook and $2 for each pen she bought. If she spent $24 in all, how many pens did she buy?
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Answer & Explanation
Correct answer
B
Separate the one-time purchase from the repeating one. The notebook is a fixed $4; pens repeat at $2 each. So 4 + 2p = 24, where p is the number of pens.
The money left for pens is 24 − 4 = $20, which buys 20 ÷ 2 = 10 pens, choice (B). Check: 4 + 10 × 2 = 24.
The most common wrong answer is (C) 12, dividing the full $24 by the $2 pen price as if the notebook were free. (A) 4 merges the two prices into a single $6 unit and computes 24 ÷ 6. (D) 14 adds the $4 instead of removing it. (E) 20 stops at the dollars remaining after the notebook and reports money, not a pen count.
Pay the fixed cost first, then divide what remains by the per-item price: 10.