My question is: Roy has 2 blue pens. He has twice as many black and 2 less than twice as many red than black pens. How many pens does Roy have in all? Your thoughts:
Roy has 2 x 2 = 4 black pens. Twice the number of black pens is 4 x 2 = 8. So, there are 8 - 2 = 6 red pens. Therefore, Roy has 2 + 6 + 4 = 12 pens in all. The final answer: 12.