Today you worked from 7am to 4pm. The state you live in requires that you take a 30-minute break during any shift longer than 6 hours. this break does not count towards your hours. How many hours did you work today? Remember, 30 minutes is equal to .5 hours

Could you make it more clear?

Look, when you want to do something like put it like x^2. x2 could mean x² or x₂. so to clear confusion, know the notation. to find the product multiply the x's and you get -8x and the y's and you get 6y. since it's all being multiplied it is just -8x6y, or answer a. although the better answer is -48xy(combining -8 and 6) because you should multiply constants whenever you can.