3. A frog starts climbing from the bottom of a 12-meter deep well at 8 o'clock. It climbs up 3 meters and then slides down 1 meter due to the slippery well wall. The time it takes to slide down 1 meter is one-third of the time it takes to climb up 3 meters. At 8:17, the frog reaches 3 meters below the well's mouth for the second time. How long does it take for the frog to climb from the bottom of the well to the mouth? ( ) minutes.
(A) 22
(B) 20
(C) 17
(D) 16
Answer: A.
Whether up or down, the time used for each meter is the same. According to the problem, for every 3 meters climbed up, there is a 1-meter slide down. We can create a table.
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|}
\hline Frog's actual height & 3 & 2 & 5 & 4 & 7 & 6 & 9 & 8 & 9 & 11 & 10 & 12 \\
\hline Climbing up & 3 & 0 & 3 & 0 & 3 & 0 & 3 & 0 & 1 & 2 & 0 & 2 \\
\hline Sliding down & 0 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}

From the table above, we can see that when the frog reaches 3 meters from the well's mouth for the second time, the frog has moved $3 \times 4 + 1 + 1 \times 4 = 17$ meters. When the frog jumps out of the well, it has traveled a total of $3 \times 5 + 2 + 1 \times 5 = 22$ meters. According to the problem, $17 \div 17 \times 22 = 22$ minutes.