Kevin and some friends baked different loaves of bread and cut them into different numbers of slices. they ate 1/4 of one loaf, 1/4 of another, 5/12 of another, and 1/12 of another. did they eat the equivalent of a whole bread

The first thing you should do to answer the question is to take each of the amounts to percentages:
 (1/4) * (100) = 25
 (1/4) * (100) = 25
 (5/12) * (100) = 41.67
 (1/12) * (100) = 8.33
 Adding all the amounts:
 25 + 25 + 41.67 + 8.33 = 100%
 answer
 Yes, they ate the equivalent of a whole bread