While hiding behind a bush, chamara sees an ice cream truck and yelps in joy. kevin, justin, and jason come running over to buy ice cream upon hearing chamara yelp. the four of them each want an ice cream cone. each ice cream cone is $4. the cones are each buy one get one half off. if they decide to split the cost evenly, how much do each of the boys pay?

So all four went to the ice-cream lady and got first 2 ice-creams, the lady said, "ok 4 bucks for the first one, and half-off the second, or 2 bucks".

so, for the first two cones, they didn't pay 4+4 bucks, they only paid 4+2 bucks, and for the next two cones, they paid the same.

so in total for the four cones they paid 4+2  and 4+2, or 12 bucks.

how many times do 4(boys) go into 12(total)?   12/4.

The answer would be a