Question

In your notebook, copy and complete the dialogues below.

What household chores had you done when Mother arrived?
A) Cleaning the kitchen
B) Washing the dishes
C) Vacuuming the living room
D) Mowing the lawn

A: What tasks had the students accomplished before the teacher came?
B) Finishing their homework
C) Cleaning the classroom
D) Playing in the playground

A: What had happened when his father returned home from Saudi Arabia?
B) Family dinner was ready
C) The car broke down
D) A surprise party was planned

A: What had Dulce accomplished before she was chosen as the best student in English?
B) Winning a spelling bee
C) Completing a challenging project
D) Memorizing the dictionary

A: What numbers in the program had been presented when the guest arrived late?
B) Numbers 1 to 5
C) Numbers 6 to 10
D) Numbers 11 to 15

Answer 1

To maximize efficiency, assign vacuuming to your roommates and take on the dishes yourself since you are significantly faster at that task. Potential interpersonal issues could arise due to the perceived workload imbalance. This scenario is similar to determining trade specializations based on comparative advantage for overall efficiency.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you have just moved into an apartment in Washington, D.C. and you find yourself to be more efficient at doing chores than your roommates, you need to strategize assigning tasks to maximize your free time. Since you are 70% faster at dishes and 10% faster with vacuuming, you should assign the vacuuming to your roommates, as you gain less of a comparative advantage with this task. Even if you have the same number of hours to devote to cleaning, the lesser efficiency your roommates have at dishes (where your speed advantage is greatest) means you'll finish far more quickly, resulting in more free time.

However, being quicker might lead to potential problems such as feelings of unfairness or imbalance in the workload distribution amongst your roommates. Feeling undervalued or exploited could arise since your roommates may feel they are always cleaning, while you appear to have more leisure time. This situation can be likened to a trade-related analogy where comparative advantage in productivity should determine who specializes in what trade to maximize overall efficiency.