
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
In a basket, there are 38 apples: 9 green, 12 yellow, and 17 red. Alyona sequentially takes apples out of the basket one by one. If at any point she has taken out fewer green apples than yellow ones, and fewer yellow ones than red, she will stop taking more apples from the basket.

(a) What is the maximum number of yellow apples Alyona can take out of the basket?

(b) What is the maximum number of apples Alyona can take out of the basket?

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