A calculator was used to perform a linear regression on the values in the table. The results are shown to the right of the table

Remark
This is one of those cases where you are getting confused by a lot of numbers some of which you should not be concerned with. You are given y = ax + b.

You are told that the best fitting line has values of a = - 3.6 and b = 12.8.

All you need do is put that into the general equation and try different values for it.

So you have y = - 3.6 x + 12.8

Now Let's run a couple of numbers.
The table shows 1 and 9 for the first entry. This means when x = 1, y should come pretty close to nine.

y = - 3.6(1) + 12.8
y = 9.2 which is not a bad result for x = 1


You might want to check to see if anything else comes closer in your choices. If it does, then you have to try other points.

C
-0.998 = -3.6(1) + 12.8
This answer cannot work. We've already shown that x =1 will leave us close to 9  not -998 so C is incorrect.

B
y = 12.8x - 3.6
Let x = 1
y = 12.8(1) - 3.6
y = 9.2 is right by coincidence. We must try another value. The hardest one is going to be 5 and - 5

y= 12.8*5 - 3.6
y = 64 - 3.6 which is nowhere's near - 5. So B is wrong.

A
y = -0.998(1) + 12.8 Does this give 9 or anywhere near it? 11.802 You might argue that that is not a bad result. So let's try another pair.

x = 3. y should come to somewhere near 2.
y = -0.998 * 3 + 12.8 which comes to roughly nine. You can check this out.
It is not close enough to 2 to be acceptable.

D <<<<<Answer.