Patrick purchased 80 pencils and sold them at a loss equa

VJesus12 wrote:Patrick purchased 80 pencils and sold them at a loss equal to the selling price of 20 pencils. The cost of 80 pencils is how many times the selling price of 80 pencils?

(A) 0.75
(B) 0.8
(C) 1
(D) 1.2
(E) 1.25

Since the two blue values above are equal, the given question stem is the same as the following:
The cost of EACH PENCIL is how many times the selling price of EACH PENCIL?

Let the selling price of each pencil = $1.
Thus, the selling price of 80 pencils = $80.

Since Patrick's loss is equal to the selling price of 20 pencils, we get:
Loss = 20*1 = 20.

Since the 80 pencils are sold for $80 at a loss of $20, Patrick's cost for the 80 pencils must be $100.
Since 80 pencils have a total cost of $100, the cost per pencil = 100/80 = 5/4 = 1.25.

Resulting ratio:
(cost per pencil)/(selling price per pencil) = (1.25)/1 = 1.25.

The correct answer is E.