Mark had a bag of candy. He gave 4 pieces of candy to Alison, 8 pieces of candy to his cousin and ate half of the remaining pieces of candy. He was then left with 10 pieces of candy. How many pieces of candy did Mark have at first?
Mark was left with 10 pieces of candy after giving 4 pieces to Alison, 8 to his cousin and eating half of the remaining pieces of candy.
If he was left with 10, that means he ate 10 candies (he ate half of the remaining candies)
So he now has 20 candies.
If he gave 8 to his cousin, we will add the 8 back on to 20 (20 + 8 = 28)
He also gave 4 to Alison, so we will add that on to 28 (4 + 28 = 32)
Mark had 32 originally.