I don't understand

[waxen oasis]

its a functions thing, x and y

[hardy wigeon]

I think it wants you to find what kind of combination/permutation that is. For example in the A) I can see all permutations of two elements from a set of 6. Those are permutations since I can see ☺️🌞 as well as 🌞☺️ next to each other, therefore order matters. So calculating all the possible permutations I'd take one of six elements and put one of the other five after it, so the number of permutations are P(6,2) = 6*5 therefore 30 as we can see.