Environmentalists are concerned about emissions of sulphur dioxide into the air. The average number of days per year in which sulphur dioxide levels exceed 150 milligrams per cubic metre in Milan, Italy, is 29. The number of days per year in which emission limits are exceeded is normally distributed with a standard deviation of 4.0 days. What percentage of the years would average between 21 and 37 days of excess emissions of sulphur dioxide? What percentage of the years would exceed 37 days? What percentage of the years would exceed 41 days? In what percentage of the years would there be fewer than 25 days with excess sulphur dioxide emissions?

Sporting Life, Inc., is a large retail chain of sporting goods stores. In a recent annual report, the following information was presented.

Cash for investing activities was used primarily for property and equipment purchases. Cash used by financing activities was primarily to pay off long-term debt and acquire treasury stock.

Required

A. Assume that you work for an investment firm that has an opportunity to invest in notes that are part of Sporting Life’s long-term debt. Write a short report in which you analyze the firm’s ability to meet its debt payments, based on the information given.

B. Prepare a list of the most important additional pieces of information you would want before making a final decision about the investment. This list should include some accounting information; it might also include nonaccounting and nonquantitative items.