This is a story problem, so we're going to have five parts. The first part is to define all of our variables. So X equal the reading score, Y equal the mathematics score, and Z equal the writing score. It tells us the three scores total was 1542. It told us the math score was exceeded, IE more than the reading score, by 14 points. So X + 14, the average writing score was 8 less than the reading score. So X - 8 would be equaling the writing score. And then what was the average score for each category? So if we know that X + y + C = 1542, instead of Y we could put in X + 14 and instead of Z we could put in X - 8. So we'd have X + X + 14 + X - 8 or three X + 6 equal 1542. We subtract the six and we get 3X equal 1536. Divide each side by three. Once we get our 512 for our X or our reading score, we're going to substitute back in to get our Y and our Z. So 512 + 14 and 512 -, 8, so 526 and five O 4, respectively. In a story problem, there are five steps. We define the variable, we write the equations. We solve the equations we check and we have to check in all three equations. Just because it works in one doesn't mean it will always work in the others. So we check all three and then we answer what was asked for. So it says what was the average score for each category. The reading score is 512, the math score is 526, and the writing score is five O 4.