[Question]John buys 3 puzzles. The first puzzle has 1000 pieces. The second and third puzzles have the same number of pieces and each has 50% more pieces. How many total pieces are all the puzzles?
[Answer]The second puzzle has 1000 * .5 = 500 more pieces than the first. So it has 1000 + 500 = 1500 total pieces. That means those two puzzles have 1500 * 2 = 3000 pieces. So in total there were 3000 + 1000 = 4000 pieces. The answer is 4000.

[Question]The Grey's bought several chickens at a sale. John took 5 more of the chickens than Mary took. Ray took 6 chickens less than Mary. If Ray took 10 chickens, how many more chickens did John take than Ray?
[Answer]Mary took 10 + 6 = 16 chickens. John took 16 + 5 = 21 chickens. John took 21 - 10 = 11 more chickens than Ray. The answer is 11.

[Question]There are 11 males & 12 females in the orchestra and twice that number in the band. There are 12 males & 17 females in the choir. If each musician only participates in one group, how many musicians total are there in the orchestra, the band, and the choir?
[Answer]The number of musicians in the orchestra is 11 + 12 = 23. The number of musicians in the band is 2 × 23 = 46. The number of students in the choir is 12 + 17 = 29. There are 23 + 46 + 29 = 98 musicians in total. The answer is 98.

[Question]In a block of flats, there are 120 apartments. 85% of them have at least 1 resident, while 60% of the apartments have at least two residents. How many apartments have only one resident?
[Answer]
At least one person lives in 85 / 100 * 120 = 102 apartments. At least two persons live in 60 / 100 * 120 = 72 apartments. So in every of the 102 - 72 = 30 apartments, only one person is living. The answer is 30.