in the county of veenapaniville , there are a total of 50 high schools , of 3 kinds : 25 public schools , 16 parochial schools , and 9 private independent schools . these 50 schools are divided between 3 districts : a , b , and c . district a has 18 high schools total . district b has 17 high schools total , and only two of those are private independent schools . if district c has an equal number of each of the 3 kinds of schools , how many private independent schools are there in district a ?	Choices:	A) 2	B) 3	C) 4	D) 5	E) 6

Rationale: “ in the county of veenapaniville , there are a total of 50 high schools , of three kinds : 25 public schools , 16 parochial schools , and 9 private independent schools . ” “ district a has 18 high schools total . ” “ district b has 17 high schools total , and only two of those are private independent schools . ” “ district c has an equal number of each of the three kinds of schools . ” hmm . that ’ s not a simple number . let ’ s put that on hold for a moment . so far , from the matrix it looks like we could figure out the missing number in the “ totals ” row . that number must be 15 , because 18 + 17 + 15 = 50 . now , go back to that last fact : “ district c has an equal number of each of the three kinds of schools . ” now that makes sense . district c has 15 schools , so it must have 5 of each kind : the question is asking : “ how many private independent schools are there in district a ? ” well , now that ’ s just a matter of adding across the “ private independent ” row . we know 2 + 2 + 5 = 9 , so the missing number must be 2 . there ’ s still a good deal of information we can ’ t figure out from the information given in the question , but we are able to answer the specific question asked here . there are 2 private independent schools in district a , so the answer = ( a ) .
Answer: A