Final answer:
Marie is on page 20 and Jorge on page 35. Marie will surpass Jorge in 6 nights as she reads 3 pages more than Jorge each night. The provided multiple-choice options did not include the correct answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine how long it will take for Marie to be further in the book than Jorge, we first note that Marie is on page 20 and Jorge is on page 35. Marie reads 5 pages each night, while Jorge reads 2 pages each night. The difference in their starting pages is 35 - 20 = 15 pages.
Each night the difference in pages read between Marie and Jorge is 5 pages for Marie minus 2 pages for Jorge, giving us a difference of 3 pages each night (5 - 2 = 3).
To find out how many nights it will take for this difference to make Marie surpass Jorge, we divide the initial difference of 15 pages by the nightly difference of 3 pages per night. The calculation will be 15/3 = 5 nights.
However, on the 5th night, Marie would just catch up to Jorge, because she would have read (5 nights * 5 pages/night) = 25 pages + her original 20 pages, which equals 45 pages. Jorge would have read (5 nights * 2 pages/night) = 10 pages + his original 35 pages, which also equals 45 pages. Therefore, to surpass Jorge, Marie needs one more night. So, the total is 5 + 1 = 6 nights.
The correct answer based on these calculations was not provided in the multiple-choice options given. If this is a discrepancy, you should inform your teacher or the person who posed the question for clarification.
Note: Students often encounter questions with set answer choices that may not always match their calculations. In this case, they should choose the closest answer or seek clarification.