its D 80 %

total=100
those who cover local politics=14
those who cover politics=X
70 percent of X=14
X=20
so 20 percent cover politics
80 percent do not

Here's an algebraic way to solve the problem.

There are a total of y reporters for the wire service.

Of those y reporters, x reporters cover politics for the wire service.

.14(y)= Amount of people who cover politics for country X.

.70(x)= Amount of people who cover politicics for country X. (Expressed in terms of x)

.14(y)=.70(x)

We want to find y-x.
x=.2y
y-x=.8y, so it's 80%.

many thks guys

Xbond wrote:I submit a question to you which may sound simple or stupid for some of you, but I face some issue with this question.
If someone can dedicate a couple of minutes to explain to me how to resolve in simple and fast way this PS.

Exactly 14% of the reporters for a certain wire service cover local politics in Country X.
If 30% of the reporters who cover politics for the wire service do not cover local politics in Country X, what percent of the reporters for the wire service do not cover politics?

A - 20%
B - 42%
C - 44%
D - 80%
E - 84%

Hi Xbond,

with these kind of questions, usually creation of matrix is always helpful as one below



-----> RCP RNCP Total
RClp 14
RNClP .3x
Total x y 100

14+0.3x = x

gives x = 20

also x + y = 100

You can easily substitute x and can find y.

Xbond wrote:I submit a question to you which may sound simple or stupid for some of you, but I face some issue with this question.
If someone can dedicate a couple of minutes to explain to me how to resolve in simple and fast way this PS.

Exactly 14% of the reporters for a certain wire service cover local politics in Country X.
If 30% of the reporters who cover politics for the wire service do not cover local politics in Country X, what percent of the reporters for the wire service do not cover politics?

A - 20%
B - 42%
C - 44%
D - 80%
E - 84%

We can let the the total number of reporters for the wire service = 100 and n = the number of reporters who cover politics. Thus (100 - n) reporters do not cover politics.

Since 30% of the reporters who cover politics for the wire service do not cover local politics, 0.3n who cover politics reporters do not cover local politics, but 0.7n do and we are given that 14% of 100 reporters, i.e., 14 of them do cover local politics. Thus we can create the equation:

0.7n = 14

n = 14/0.7 = 140/7 = 20

So we have 20 reporters who cover politics and hence 80 reporters or 80% of them don't cover politics.

Answer: D