I’m having troubles answering 5+(3x-1)=55

Nick has box brads. he uses 4 brads for the first project. nick let’s b represent the original number of brads and finds that for the second project, the number of brads he uses is 8 more than half the difference of b and 4. write an expression to represent the number of brads he uses for the second project.

We just started the introduction into circles and i have no idea how to do this.

Find the common ratio of the sequence. -4, 8, -16, 32, a: -12b: -2c: 12d: -1/-2