Atotal of $32,000 is to invested, some in bonds and some in certificates of deposit (cds). if the amount invested in bonds is to exceed that in cds by $8,000, how much will be invested in each type of investment

I think all you do is $32,000 / $8,000 which is $4,000.

Meaning $4,000 will be invested in each investment, I may be wrong though.

I am going to set x=bonds and y=cds
equation one
x+y=32000
equation 2
x=y+8000
substitute equation 2 back into equation 1
(y+8000)+y=32000
2y+8000=32000
2y=24000
y=12000(cds)
now you can take this y value and plug it back into either equation you want
x=12000+8000
x=20000(bonds)