A simple GRE data-analysis question - but I dont know what it is asking

Question

It is a GRE data analysis question. I don't if I am dumb in Math, or in English. But I could not understand what is the question a want me to answer. Please give me a hint.

Answer 1

For a, you are asked to find two categories that add to 49 percent in 2003. Look at the black bars and find two that add to 49. As there are only three that are close to half of 49, you can try three possibilities and find the correct pair. The others are too small to get you there.

Answer 2

For the first question you must find two of the categories Income Taxes, Food, etc. whose percentages in $2003$ (the dark bars) total $49$%. Reading from left to right, the $2003$ percentages for the seven categories are $31$%, $24$%, $7$%, $3$%, $7$%, about $3.5$%, and $25$%; which two of those add up to $49$%? Once you’ve found them, use the light bars for the corresponding categories to find the $2004$ percentages for those categories, and add those percentages. For instance, if you were using Income Taxes and Food, the $2003$ total would be $31+7=38$%, and the $2004$ total would be $30+11=41$%.

Unfortunately, the second question is ambiguous: it should mean that you’re to find the category in which the $2004$ figure is the largest percentage of the $2003$ figure, but since the values in question are already percentages, it may mean that you’re to find the category that showed the greatest absolute increase. Fortunately, in this case the two questions have the same answer.

• For the first interpretation, look at each category and ask by what you would have to multiply the $2003$ percentage to get the $2004$ percentage, and pick the category for which this is largest. For example, to get from $24$% to $27$% in the second category, you must multiply $24$ by $\frac{27}{24}=\frac98$. You don’t actually have to calculate any of these multipliers, however: is there any category in which the percentage more than doubled from $2003$ to $2004$? Is there more than one such category.

• For the second interpretation, look at each category and ask what you would have to add to the $2003$ percentage to get the $2004$ percentage, and pick the category for which this is largest. This again is easily judged by eye without doing any actual subtractions.