The question is worded a bit strangely (in my opinion anyway), but I think your teacher wants you to describe how exponents work.
Let's say we had the expression 
The base is 5 as its the bottom most value (think of something like the base of a tree or building). The exponent is 3.
The exponent of 3 tells the reader to multiply the base 5 by itself 3 times like so

With larger exponents, it becomes more tedious to write out all the repeated multiplications, which is why many calculators have an exponent button to save time.
Answer:50.18
Step-by-step explanation:
8x+17+9x+11=102
17x+28=102
-28. -28
17x=74
<CAD=9x+11=50.18
x=74/17
60 of each item
Step-by-step explanation:
5 boxes of pencils, 6 boxes of markers, 15 boxes of notebooks, 10 boxes of erasers, and four boxes of folders
Answer:
-The scale drawing represents a reduction
-each side of the original is 22 in long
-the scale drawing is proportional to the original
Step-by-step explanation: