Question: Scott wants to buy a skateboard. To make money, Scott sold berry smoothies for $3 a cup and cakes for $2 each. He sold 40 cups of smoothies and 18 cakes. How much money did he make?
Answer: He made $3 / cup × 40 cups = $120 from the smoothies. He also made $2 / cake × 18 cakes = $36 from the cakes. Scott made a total of $120 + $36 = $156. The answer is 156.

Question: There are 40 more buyers in the grocery store today than yesterday. There were half the number of buyers yesterday as there were the day before, and the day before had 50 buyers. Nobody visited the store on more than one day. What's the total number of buyers who've visited the store in the three days?
Answer: If yesterday the number of buyers was half the number of buyers the day before, then yesterday there were 1 / 2 * 50 = 25 buyers. Today has 40 more buyers than yesterday, so there were 40 + 25 = 65 buyers today. The total number of buyers in the store for the three days will be 65 + 25 + 50 = 140 buyers. The answer is 140.

Question: John volunteers at a shelter twice a month for 3 hours at a time. How many hours does he volunteer per year?
Answer: He volunteers 2 * 12 = 24 times a year. So he volunteers for 24 * 3 = 72 hours. The answer is 72.

Question: Last year, the school library purchased 50 new books. This year, it purchased 3 times as many books. If the library had 100 books before it purchased new books last year, how many books are in the library now?
Answer:
Last year, there were a total of 100 + 50 = 150 books in the library. The library purchased 50 x 3 = 150 books this year. Therefore, the library now has a total of 150 + 150 = 300 books. The answer is 300.