Carmen is preparing dinner plates for a row of customers at the counter in a diner. She likes to put a couple of sprigs of parsley on each plate for decoration. However, she is very low on parsley and doesn't have enough to even put 1 sprig on every plate, so she needs to break several of the parsley sprigs in two to make 2 smaller ones to stretch them out. If she decorates 8 plates with one whole parsley sprig and 12 plates with 1/2 a sprig each, how many sprigs of parsley does she have left if she started with 25? Give the rationale and then the answer.
Let's think step by step. Carmen decorates 8 plates with 1 whole sprig of parsley, 8 plates x 1 parsley sprig each = 8 parsley sprigs. She also decorates 12 plates with 1 / 2 a sprig each, 12 x 1 / 2 = 6 parsley sprigs. She started with 25 parsley sprigs and has used 8 + 6 = 14 parsley sprigs. After using 14 parsley sprigs, she has 25 - 14 = 11 sprigs left.. The answer is: 11.

Alexis can sew a skirt in 2 hours and a coat in 7 hours. How long does it take for Alexis to sew 6 skirts and 4 coats? Give the rationale and then the answer.
Let's think step by step. It takes Alexis 2 x 6 = 12 hours to sew 6 skirts. It takes Alexis another 7 x 4 = 28 hours to sew 4 coats. In total it takes Alexis 12 + 28 = 40 hours to sew 6 skirts and 4 coats.. The answer is: 40.

Uncle Jerry wants to reap ripe tomatoes from his garden. Yesterday, he was able to reap 120 tomatoes. Today, he was able to reap 50 more tomatoes than yesterday. How many tomatoes did Uncle Jerry reap? Give the rationale and then the answer.
Let's think step by step. Today, Uncle Jerry reaps 120 + 50 = 170 tomatoes. Therefore, Uncle Jerry reaps a total of 120 + 170 = 290 ripe tomatoes.. The answer is: 290.