We need to find different things that are part of the parabola. In the following picture I graph the same parabola given by the question:
First we need to find the equation of the axis of symmetry. This is the vertical line that passes through the vertex of the parabola so it would be better to find the vertex first. In this case the vertex is the point where the parabola reaches its minimum value. Looking at the picture you can see the vertex marked in blue and the axis of symmetry in green. It is important to note that the axis passes through the vertex as I stated before.
The x-intercepts are the points where the parabola cuts the x-axis. As you can see there are two of these and they are marked in grey.
The y-intercept is the point where the parabola and the y-axis met and is marked in red.
So following what is presented in the picture above we have the answers:
(a) upward
(b) x = -1
(c) x-intercepts: -4,2
y-intercept: -8
(d) (-1,-9)