<PRE><B>Question 709348</B>
Let x represent the age of Kate four years ago. At the same time, Maria was 6x years old.

At the present time, Kate will be x + 4 years old and Maria will be 6x + 4 years old. We are told that Maria is now four times as old as Kate. So we have the following equation to solve.

    6x + 4 = 4(x + 4) 
     6x - 2x = 16 - 4
        2x = 12
         x = 6

So Kate is now 6 + 4 = 10 years old and Maria is now 6(6) + 4 = 40 years old.        
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