Marcella has 27 pairs of shoes. If she loses 9 individual shoes, what is the greatest number of matching pairs she could have left?  Choose the correct choice from the following answers
A) 22	B) 20	C) 19	D) 16	E) 15
Marcella has 27 pairs of shoes and loses 9 shoes.   To minimize the loss of identical pairs of shoes we want Marcella to lose as many identical pairs as possible. This would yield 4 identical pairs and 1 additional shoe (destroying 5 pairs of shoes).   The 27 pairs of shoes minus the 5 'destroyed' pairs yields 22 pairs that still fulfill the requirements.   22nswer: 22
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Marcella has 27 pairs of shoes. If she loses 9 individual shoes, what is the greatest number of matching pairs she could have left?