Math is not a series of assumptions. It is an exact science. In properly formatted math, nothing needs to be assumed. If this is "Common Core Math" it needs to be eliminated.
In my first semester of Calculus, I remember to be terribly frustrated by the first statement of every example. It was: "Let x be a function of y and z." It would be followed by an equation relating x, y, and z (or what ever the variables in the statement were). I could understand each of the words in the opening sentence, but I didn't have a clue what they meant. I gave up asking the professor, because he couldn't help me understand either.
After months of frustration, it finally dawned on me that the author was simply stating the obvious: An equation relating x, y, and z could be written so it is not necessary to assume that it can be written. He then proceeded to write it. I did not need to assume anything. x was, indeed, a function of y and z.
It would equally appropriate to end each question in the test with the statement: "solve for x and y, in the form (x,y).
But this isn’t even that. All you have to do is figure out the word that fills in the blank and then it gives you the answer! They are not even math problems!