Alice picked a number of pears, each of which she sold, canned, or poached. She canned 20 percent more than she poached, and she poached 50 percent less than she sold. If there were a total of 42 pears, then how many pears did she sell?  Choose the correct choice: A) 20 B) 21 C) 22 D) 23 E) 24

Rationale: let x be the amount of pears that she sold . then she poached 0.5 x . then she canned 1.2 * 0.5 x = 0.6 x . the total amount of pears is x + 0.5 x + 0.6 x = 2.1 x the fraction of pears that she sold is 1 / 2.1 = 10 / 21 . the number of pears she sold is ( 10 / 21 ) * 42 = 20 . the answer is a .
Answer: A