When having parentheses in a math problem do they come first?

The fence around a quadrilateral-shaped pasture is 3a^2+15a+9 long. three sides of the fence have the following lengths: 5a, 10a-2, a^2-7. what is the length of the fourth side of the fence?

The length of a shadow of the building is 36m. the length of the pole, which is perpendicular to the ground, is 1.9m. the length of the pole's shadow is 1.52m. what is the height of the building?

Agarden consists of an apple tree, a pear tree, cauliflowers, and heads of cabbage. there are 40 vegetables in the garden. 24 of them are cauliflowers. what is the ratio of the number of cauliflowers to the number of heads of cabbage?