Két ajánlat, egy határidő
A reading passage contains two short advertisements. Offer A is a language school: a 10-week Hungarian conversation course, two evenings a week, 90 minutes per session, 45,000 forint, starting 3 March, maximum 8 students, no refund after the second week. Offer B is a private tutor: 6,000 forint per hour, flexible scheduling, but the tutor is away for the whole of April and asks for payment in blocks of ten hours in advance. The student, Zsófia, has a state exam in mid-May, can only study on weekday evenings, and has a firm budget of 50,000 forint. The passage ends with her note: 'A-t választom, mert olcsóbb' ('I'll choose A because it's cheaper'). The question asks the reader to evaluate her reasoning using only the information given.
1. Is Zsófia's claim that Offer A is cheaper actually supported by the passage? Show the arithmetic and the reasoning.
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Her claim is not supported as stated. Offer A costs 45,000 forint in total, which is indeed below her 50,000 budget and below the 60,000 forint that ten hours with the tutor would cost up front. But 'cheaper' depends on what is being compared. Offer A delivers 10 weeks × 2 sessions × 90 minutes = 30 hours for 45,000 forint, about 1,500 forint per hour. Offer B is 6,000 forint per hour. On an hourly basis A is clearly cheaper, so her conclusion happens to be right - but the passage never states the number of sessions per week in a way she cites, and her stated reason ('because it's cheaper') ignores the real deciding factor, which is availability. A strong answer notes that the correct comparison is cost per hour of instruction, not headline price, and that her stated reason is incomplete even where the conclusion is correct.
2. Using the constraints given, which offer better fits Zsófia's situation, and what is the strongest single argument for it?
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Offer A fits better, and the strongest argument is the April absence, not price. Zsófia's exam is in mid-May. Offer B's tutor is unavailable for all of April, which removes roughly four weeks from the run-up to the exam - the most valuable study period. Offer A runs continuously from 3 March for 10 weeks, ending in mid-May, so it covers the whole preparation window. Secondary points: both fit her weekday-evening constraint, and both fit the 50,000 forint budget (A at 45,000; B at 60,000 up front would actually exceed it, since ten hours in advance costs 60,000). That budget detail is the trap - a student who only checks the hourly rate will miss that B requires an upfront payment above her limit. Full marks require naming the April gap as decisive and noting the upfront-payment problem as a supporting reason.