Question 1 a) Maria Limited is authorized to sell 1,000,000 its $10 par value ordinary shares. As at the end of the current year, the company has actually sold 500,000 ordinary shares at $15 per share. In addition, of the 500,000 ordinary shares that have been sold, 40,000 shares have been repurchased at $80 per share to be used to meet the future requirements of a share option plan that the company intends to implement. Required: Prepare the general journal entries required to record all the above transactions. Except for the workings of calculations, no explanation or date is required when preparing the journal entries. (5 marks) b) Briefly explain three reasons a corporation may choose to issue noncumulative preferences shares rather than finance operations with long-term debt (Note: no marks will be given if answer is in point form)