sat suite question viewer
Marisa needs to hire at least 10 staff members for an upcoming project. The staff members will be made up of junior directors, who will be paid $640 per week, and senior directors, who will be paid $880 per week. Her budget for paying the staff members is no more than $9,700 per week. She must hire at least 3 junior directors and at least 1 senior director. Which of the following systems of inequalities represents the conditions described if x is the number of junior directors and y is the number of senior directors?
Explanation
Choice B is correct. Marisa will hire x junior directors and y senior directors. Since she needs to hire at least 10 staff members, 
. Each junior director will be paid $640 per week, and each senior director will be paid $880 per week. Marisa’s budget for paying the new staff is no more than $9,700 per week; in terms of x and y, this condition is 
. Since Marisa must hire at least 3 junior directors and at least 1 senior director, it follows that 
and 
. All four of these conditions are represented correctly in choice B.
Choices A and C are incorrect. For example, the first condition, 
, in each of these options implies that Marisa can pay the new staff members more than her budget of $9,700. Choice D is incorrect because Marisa needs to hire at least 10 staff members, not at most 10 staff members, as the inequality 
implies.