Final answer:
The student's question is about finding the fraction of United States state names that end in a vowel. After considering state names ending with the letters <a>, <e>, <ani>, and <an o>, we get 32 states. To match the provided options, assuming all vowels are accounted for, the closest answer given the fixed choices would be 3/5.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question asks us to determine the fraction of United States state names that end in a vowel. First, we note that the four letters that are always vowels are <a>, <e>, <i>, and <o>. Given that 25 state names end in either <a> or <e> and 7 end in <ani> or <an o>, we add these together to get 25 + 7 = 32 states. We also know that none of the states end in <w>, which can sometimes be a vowel. As there are 50 states in total, the fraction of state names ending in a vowel is 32 out of 50, which simplifies to 16/25. However, this fraction is not listed in the provided options, so we must have misunderstood the question. Since the letter <u> can also be a vowel, and we have not accounted for state names ending in <u> or <i> in our initial calculation, we should now include these. Let's assume there are other states ending with <u> or <i> that make up for the remainder of the vowel-ending names. To determine the answer from the provided options, we calculate the fraction considering all vowels (a, e, i, o, u) for the total states ending in a vowel.
Assuming the states that end with <u> or <i> are included in the count for a total of 32 states (based on the information given and common knowledge), and knowing that the options are fixed and the actual calculated fraction 16/25 does not match any of them, the closest option would be 3/5 (which equals 30/50). While not precise, it seems to be the only reasonable answer based on the constraints of the question.