Final answer:
To find the system of equations, we assign variables to the number of hours spent cleaning and raking leaves. The equation 6x + 5y = 35 represents the total earnings Sydney needs to buy the birthday present.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the system of equations that can be used to find how many hours Sydney should spend cleaning and raking leaves, we need to consider the amount of money Sydney can earn per hour for each task. Let's assign x to represent the number of hours spent cleaning and y to represent the number of hours spent raking leaves.
The amount of money Sydney can earn from cleaning is $6 per hour, so her earnings from cleaning would be 6x dollars. Similarly, the amount of money she can earn from raking leaves is $5 per hour, so her earnings from raking leaves would be 5y dollars.
Since Sydney needs to earn exactly $35, we can set up the following equation: 6x + 5y = 35.
Therefore, the system of equations that can be used to find how many hours Sydney should spend cleaning and raking leaves is:
6x + 5y = 35.