You are given a background paragraph that describes one or more causal or qualitative relationships such as a relationship in economics or a scientific law and a story that makes use of the concepts or the relationship described in the provided paragraph. You need to come up with a question about the story that requires an understanding of the relationship described in the background paragraph. The generated question should not be answerable without both the background and story. Write a question about the story that requires a relationship in the background paragraph to answer. Check whether your question requires both the background paragraph and the story to answer. If your question can be answered by only one of these, try to rewrite your question so that it requires both. Note that "flipping" a word in the question can give rise to a new question where the answer will be different from the original question. Often, "flipping" a word gives rise to flipping the direction of the relationship, for example, from "increase" to "decrease."
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Question: Background Paragraph: Saturated hydrocarbons are given the general name of alkanes . The name of specific alkanes always ends in - ane . The first part of the name indicates how many carbon atoms each molecule of the alkane has. The smallest alkane is methane. It has just one carbon atom. The next largest is ethane, with two carbon atoms. The chemical formulas and properties of methane, ethane, and several other alkanes are listed in Table below . The boiling and melting points of alkanes are determined mainly by the number of carbon atoms they have. Alkanes with more carbon atoms generally have higher boiling and melting points. 
Story: Beth and Jane studied chemistry in school. However, Beth studied noble gasses while Jane decided to know more about alkanes.

Answer: Which student learned less about ethane?


Question: Background Paragraph: Another obvious change that occurs during puberty is rapid growth. This is called the adolescent growth spurt . In boys, it is controlled by testosterone. The rate of growth usually starts to increase relatively early in puberty. At its peak rate, growth in height is about 10 centimeters (almost 4 inches) per year in the average male. Growth generally remains rapid for several years. Growth and development of muscles occur toward the end of the growth spurt in height. Muscles may continue to develop and gain strength after growth in height is finished. 
Story: Joseph and Walter are two brothers who have always gotten along well, but are now going to be separated for the first time in their lives. Walter has just graduated high school and is going off to live at college several states away from home. Joseph is about to be a freshman in high school, so he has several years before he will even have the possibility of going off to the same college as his brother.

Answer: Is Joseph's rate of growth increasing or decreasing?


Question: Background Paragraph: The general trend in electronegativity is that the value increases from left to right across a row in the periodic table and decreases down a column. The most electronegative element is fluorine, which has a value of 4.0. As discussed in the lesson "Trends in the Periodic Table," electronegativity increases across a row as the number of protons in the nucleus increases and therefore has a stronger pull. Electronegativity decreases down a column due to an increased effect of electron shielding in larger atoms. 
Story: A high school student, Timmy, is reading about elements of a periodic table. He is studying the periodic table when he decides to compare two random elements within the same column. He chooses Mardine and Sampline to compare and contrast and gets to work. The first thing he notices is that Sampline is further down the periodic table than Mardine. It's not much information to go on, but it's a good starting point for Timmy.

Answer:
Is electron shielding higher or lower in Mardine?