Question: Sally took 342 pens to her class of 44 students. If she gave 7 pens to each student, left half of the remainder in her locker, and took the rest home, how many did she take home?
Answer with step-by-step thinking: She gave 7 pens each to 44 students for a total of 7 * 44 = 308 pens. There are now 342 - 308 = 34 pens left. She left half of 34 pens in her locker which is 34 * (1 / 2) = 17 pens. She took 34 - 17 = 17 pens home.
So the answer is 17.

Question: Joanna and Jacques had 40 and 60 gumballs, respectively, in their dishes. They then purchased 4 times the number of gumballs they had initially and added these to their dishes. If they decided to put together their gumballs and shared them equally, how many gumballs did each get?
Answer with step-by-step thinking: When Joanna purchased 4 times the number of gumballs she initially had, she added 40 * 4 = 160 gumballs to her dish. The total number of gumballs Joanna had in her dish after buying 160 more is 160 + 40 = 200. At the same time, Jacques bought 60 * 4 = 240 new gumballs. When Jacques added his new 240 gumballs to his dish, the total number of gumballs increased to 240 + 60 = 300 gumballs. When they decided to put together their gumballs, they had 300 + 200 = 500 gumballs altogether. After sharing equally, each person got 500 / 2 = 250 gumballs.
So the answer is 250.

Question: Matthew, the baker, arrives at work early every morning to make his famous caramel-apple coffee cakes for the day. It usually takes Matthew 1 hour to assemble ingredients, 1.5 hours to bake the cakes, and another 1 hour to decorate each cake with cinnamon sprinkles. One day, Matthew's oven failed to reach the correct temperature and it took twice as long for the cakes to bake as they usually take. On that day, how long did it take, in hours, for Matthew to make his famous caramel-apple coffee cakes?
Answer with step-by-step thinking:
Twice 1.5 hours is 2 * 1.5 = 3 hours. Thus, on that day, it took Matthew 1 + 3 + 1 = 5 hours to make the cakes.
So the answer is 5.