well, one of the answers is 1.
you just take away the positive value sign and solve for x and you get 1.
the expression inside the positive value sign can be negative.
you would get -(x + 1) - (3x+4) - (2x+1) - (x+1) = 12
that becomes:
- 3x - 4 - 2x - 1 - x - 1 = 12
combine like terms to get: -6x - 6 = 12
add 6 to both sides to get -6x = 18
solve for x to get x = -3
so, if i did this right, x = 1 or x = -3.