The area of the shaded region is 307 square feet.
The image shows a rectangular piece of paper with the following dimensions: 17 feet, 23 feet, 31 feet, and 2 feet.
The area of a rectangle is calculated by:
In this case, the length is 23 feet and the width is 17 feet.
Therefore, the area of the rectangular piece of paper is:
23 feet * 17 feet = 391 square feet.
The area of the shaded region is calculated by subtracting the area of the two white rectangles from the area of the larger rectangle.
The area of the white rectangle on the left is:
21 feet * 2 feet = 42 square feet.
The area of the white rectangle on the right is:
21 feet * 2 feet = 42 square feet.
Therefore, the area of the shaded region is:
391 square feet - 42 square feet - 42 square feet
= 307 square feet.