Final answer:
An equation representing a line parallel to y = -2x - 5 must have the same slope of -2. Thus, the general form of any parallel line would be y = -2x + b, where b is any real number.
Step-by-step explanation:
An equation that represents a line parallel to the given equation y = -2x - 5 will have the same slope, since the slope is what determines the direction of the line. Since the slope of the given line is -2, any line parallel to it will also have a slope of -2.
General form of the equation of a line is y = mx + b, where m is the slope and b is the y-intercept. To satisfy the condition of parallelism, we can use the same slope of -2. This gives us equations of the form y = -2x + b, where b can be any real number.
For example, if we choose b = 3, a parallel line would be y = -2x + 3. The y-intercept changes, but the slope remains unchanged, ensuring the two lines are parallel.