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I question is BS unless the shop only sells dogs and cats.
That is a perfectly valid and insightful point which outlines one of the major problems with the way word problems are designed. I've never seen a single pet store that ONLY sells cats and dogs.
Actually it is invalid.
It was never stated that they ONLY sold cats and dogs. The problem is just referring to the ratio of cats and dogs at the store.
Exactly.
The problem never states that, but it does state that there are 44 total
animals in the store. One must know the
total number of dogs and cats in order to use the ratios to find the number of cats. That is never explicitly stated. In order to arrive at the "correct" answer, the student has to assume something which is not explicitly stated in the question and runs completely counter to real-life experiences.
Problems like this teach students to "game" the question, not to apply critical thinking skills and math to a physical problem, which is the point of word problems in the first place.