
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
Consider four rectangular paper strips, each of length 8 units and width 1 unit. Two strips are laid horizontally, and two strips are laid vertically. The overlapping areas happen only where a vertical strip meets a horizontal strip. Calculate the total area of the table covered by these paper strips.
A) 26 square units
B) 28 square units
C) 30 square units
D) 32 square units

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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