Answer:
36 sqaure inches
Explanation:
Area of a parallelogram is always base x height, so in this case 3 x 12 = 36 square inches. Don't let the 5 inches distract you!
To see why this is, look at the triangle formed by the dotted line. Shift that triangle over to the right side of the parallelogram and you get...a rectangle! A rectangle with a base of 12 and a height of 3. And what's the area of a rectangle? Base x height (or length x width)!
So you can see a parallelogram is just a mixed up rectangle, and that's why the equation to find the area is the same.