Bobby's Christmas list had 3 more than twice as many items on it than Johnny's list. Jhonny asked for 8 fewer items than bobby. How many items were on Johnny's (x) and Bobby's (y) Christmas lists

Because jonny asked for 8 fewer items than bobby and bobby's list had 3 more than twice that of johny, the "twice" is 5. Two possible answers for this problem could be 13 and 5 since they both satisfy the requirement. if you can't logically deduct a function for it, look at the problem closely, then test and guess! Have fun with math!