1. 238
2. 50 ft²
The area of a parallelogram is bh where b is the base, and h is the height. Since line segments AB and CD are conveniently horizontal, I'll use the length of line segment CD as the base (which is 14), and the distance between line segments AB and CD as the height (which is 17). So
14 * 17 = 238
So the area of the parallelogram is 238.
As for estimating the area of the polygon in the drawing, first, look at the overall length and width. The figure covers an area 8 units wide and 8 units tall except for the corners. So the upper limit on it's size is 64. Now look at the upper left hand corner. A bit over 3 square units isn't covered. So the new upper limit to your estimate is 64 - 3 = 61 units. Look at the upper right corner. Looks like about 3.5 units aren't covered there. So the new estimate becomes 61-3.5 = 57.5. Looking at the lower left corner let's us subtract another 4 units giving 57.5 - 4 = 53.5. Lower right corner shows another 4 units or so uncovered, so 53.5 - 4 = 49.5.
Now look at the available choices of 25, 35, 50, and 65 to see what's closest. And that's obviously 50. So the answer is 50 ft².
