Passage Summary: A company tried to cut its staff by a quarter by closing three specific departments and stopping all hiring. Even though they closed those departments and didn't hire anyone new, the total number of employees only dropped by 15 percent instead of the expected 25 percent.

Reasoning: The firm eliminated divisions representing 25 percent of the staff and hired no one new, yet the total workforce only decreased by 15 percent.

Analysis: The mystery here is a mathematical discrepancy: if you remove 25% of the people and add 0%, you should have 25% fewer people. To resolve this paradox, we need a piece of information that explains why the 'elimination' of those divisions didn't result in a total loss of those employees. Perhaps the firm is better at 'eliminating' departments than it is at actually letting people go. Look for an answer that suggests many of those employees were transferred rather than terminated.