Simplify: negative 5, plus 3 times the quantity (negative 2 plus 7).

1. Simplify inside the parentheses first: negative 2 plus 7 equals 5. 2. Multiply next: 3 times 5 equals 15. 3. Add left to right: negative 5 plus 15 equals 10. 4. Multiplying negative 5 by 3 before adding the parentheses result would ignore the order of operations and give a different, incorrect value. _Source: OpenStax Prealgebra (CC BY 4.0), Ch 3 "Integers", section 3.2 Add Integers_