Ashton had 2 boxes * 14 pencils = 28 pencils. Ashton had 28 pencils - 6 = 22 pencils left.
The answer: 22
Reverse engineering the question: Ashton had two boxes of pencils with fourteen pencils in each box. He gave six pencils to his brother. How many pencils did Ashton have left?

He bought the machine for $200 - $20 = $180. He used to spend 4 * 2 = $8 a day. So he saves $8 - $3 = $5 a day. So it will take him $180 / $5 = 36 days to pay for itself.
The answer: 36
Reverse engineering the question: James decides to start making his own coffee. He buys a coffee machine for $200 and gets a $20 discount. He figures it will cost him $3 a day to make his coffee. He previously bought 2 coffees a day for $4 each.  How long until the machine pays for itself?

The total length for the fifty fences is 50 * 500 = 25000 meters. If Emmalyn charged twenty cents to paint a meter of a fence, the total income she got from painting the fences is $0.20 * 25000 = $5000.
The answer: 5000
Reverse engineering the question: Emmalyn decided to paint fences in her neighborhood for twenty cents per meter. If there were 50 fences in the neighborhood that she had to paint and each fence was 500 meters long, calculate the total amount she earned from painting the fences.

On the second day, he collected 3 times the number of tins he collected on the first day, which is 3 * 50 = 150 tins. On the third day, he collected 50 tins fewer than the second day, which is 150 - 50 = 100 tins. The total for the three days is 150 + 100 + 50 = 300 tins. To reach his goal, he still needs 500 - 300 = 200 tins. Since the total number of days left in the week is 4, he'll need to collect 200 / 4 = 50 tins per day to reach his goal.
The answer: 50
Reverse engineering the question:
James decides to build a tin house by collecting 500 tins in a week. On the first day, he collects 50 tins. On the second day, he manages to collect 3 times that number. On the third day, he collects 50 tins fewer than the number he collected on the second day. If he collects an equal number of tins on the remaining days of the week, what's the number of tins he collected each day for the rest of the week?