4. Linda has borrowed 8 more books than Susan from the school library. Richard has borrowed half as many books as Linda has. If Richard has borrowed 17 books from the library, how many books has Susan borrowed?
Answer: B
Susan has borrowed 26 books from the school library.
To determine how many books Susan has borrowed, we can first find out how many books Linda has borrowed. Since Richard has borrowed 17 books and he has borrowed half as many as Linda, we can conclude that Linda has borrowed 34 books. Given that Linda has borrowed 8 more books than Susan, we can deduce that Susan has borrowed 26 books.
A) 25
This option is incorrect because if Susan had borrowed 25 books, then Linda would have borrowed 33 books (25 + 8). However, that would mean Richard borrowed 16.5 books, which is not possible as he has borrowed 17 books.
B) 26
This option is correct. If Susan borrowed 26 books, then Linda has borrowed 34 books (26 + 8). Since Richard has borrowed half as many as Linda, he would have borrowed 17 books (34 ÷ 2), which aligns perfectly with the given information.
C) 34
This option is incorrect because if Susan borrowed 34 books, Linda would have borrowed 42 books (34 + 8). This would imply that Richard borrowed 21 books (42 ÷ 2), which contradicts the fact that he has borrowed only 17 books.
D) 42
This option is incorrect. If Susan borrowed 42 books, then Linda would have borrowed 50 books (42 + 8). Consequently, Richard would have borrowed 25 books (50 ÷ 2), which again does not match the 17 books he actually borrowed.
Conclusion
The correct answer is 26 books, as it accurately reflects the relationships established in the problem. All other options fail to provide a consistent solution with the number of books that Richard has actually borrowed, reinforcing that option B is the only viable answer.