If you have 3 apples and 2 bananas, how many pieces of fruit do you have in total?

• A. 5
• B. 3
• C. 2
• D. 6

Answer: (A)

Adding the quantities of different groups to find a total is the idea here. You’re putting together all the fruit you have. There are 3 apples and 2 bananas, so you count all of them together: 3 + 2 = 5. That means there are five pieces of fruit in total. This shows how addition works: you combine separate groups to find how many items you have in all. If you counted only the apples, you’d get 3; counting only the bananas would be 2; adding both groups gives the full total of 5.