Question: James runs a TV show and there are 5 main characters and 4 minor characters. He pays the minor characters $15,000 each episode. He paid the major characters three times as much. How much does he pay per episode?
Answer with step-by-step thinking: He pays the minor characters 15000 * 4 = $60,000. The major characters each get 15000 * 3 = $45,000. So he pays the main characters 45,000 * 5 = $225,000. So in total he pays 225,000 + 60,000 = $285,000.
So the answer is 285000.

Question: Vanessa has decided to sell some of her clothes to make pocket money, offering a standard price for each type of item. She made a total of $69 by selling 7 dresses and 4 shirts. If she managed to sell each shirt for $5, how much did the dresses sell for each?
Answer with step-by-step thinking: Let V be the cost of each dress. (7 * V) + (4 * 5) = $69. So, 7 * V + 20 = $69. 7V = $49. V = $49 / 7. V = $7.
So the answer is 7.

Question: Sam bought a dozen boxes, each with 30 highlighter pens inside, for $10 each box. He rearranged five of these boxes into packages of six highlighters each and sold them for $3 per package. He sold the rest of the highlighters separately at the rate of three pens for $2. How much profit did he make in total, in dollars?
Answer with step-by-step thinking:
Sam bought 12 boxes x $10 = $120 worth of highlighters. He bought 12 * 30 = 360 highlighters in total. Sam then took 5 boxes 6 highlighters / box = 30 highlighters. He sold these boxes for 5 * $3 = $15. After selling these 5 boxes there were 360 - 30 = 330 highlighters remaining. These form 330 / 3 = 110 groups of three pens. He sold each of these groups for $2 each, so made 110 * 2 = $220 from them. In total, then, he earned $220 + $15 = $235. Since his original cost was $120, he earned $235 - $120 = $115 in profit.
So the answer is 115.