TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you're given a question, along with three passages, 1, 2, and 3. Your job is to determine which passage can be used to answer the question by searching for further information using terms from the passage. Indicate your choice as 1, 2, or 3.
PROBLEM: Question: How many members did the Boston Symphony Orchestra have when Lilacs for voice and orchestra was premiered by the group? Passage 1:Whitman's poem appears in the Broadway musical Street Scene (1946) which was the collaboration of composer Kurt Weill, poet and lyricist Langston Hughes, and playwright Elmer Rice. Rice adapted his 1929 Pulitzer prize-winning play of the same name for the musical. In the play, which premiered in New York City in January 1947, the poem's third stanza is recited, followed by duet, "Don't Forget The Lilac Bush", inspired by Whitman's verse. Weill received the first Tony Award for Best Original Score for this work African-American composer George T. Walker, Jr. (born 1922) set Whitman's poem in his composition Lilacs for voice and orchestra which was awarded the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The work, described as "passionate, and very American," with "a beautiful and evocative lyrical quality" using Whitman's words, was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on February 1, 1996. Composer George Crumb (born 1929) set the Death Carol in his 1979 work Apparition (1979), an eight-part song cycle for soprano and amplified piano.
 Passage 2:At the 1989 election, Buchanan successfully transferred to the newly recreated seat of Ashburton, with her replacement in Pilbara, Larry Graham, retaining that seat for Labor. The re-elected Dowding government persisted only until February 1990, when it was replaced by the Lawrence government following Dowding's forced resignation. New premier Carmen Lawrence elevated Buchanan to the ministry as Minister for Works and Services and Minister for Regional Development. She was also made assistant minister to Lawrence in her capacity as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. However, the regional development portfolio was abolished in December 1990, and Buchanan lost her remaining portfolios in February 1991, as part of a ministerial reshuffle prompted by an internal spill motion. Jeff Carr and Gavan Troy were also removed as ministers, with Carr consequently resigning from parliament. Buchanan herself resigned to sit as an independent on 1 February 1991, before the new ministry was sworn in four days later. She consequently became the first woman in the Parliament of Western Australia to sit as an independent. Buchanan resigned due to ill health just over a year later, in March 1992, and died at the end of that month, aged 55. She had married George Maitland Buchanan in April 1957, with whom she had two daughters. Her resignation prompted a by-election in Ashburton, which was won by the Labor candidate Fred Riebeling.
 Passage 3:A native of Surrey, British Columbia, Wotherspoon was selected by the Portland Winter Hawks in the second round of the 2008 Western Hockey League (WHL) Bantam Draft. He made his WHL debut as a 15-year-old in 2008–09, appearing in four games for Portland, then played four full seasons between 2009 and 2013. In his WHL career, he has appeared in 239 games in his WHL career and scored 17 goals along with 65 assists. With the Winterhawks, he appeared in the WHL championship series in three consecutive years as Portland lost the final in 2011 and 2012 to the Kootenay Ice and Edmonton Oil Kings, respectively, before finally winning the Ed Chynoweth Cup championship in 2013 by defeating Edmonton. Wotherspoon was also named to the WHL's Western Conference second All-Star Team in 2012–13. Wotherspoon scored three points in five games at the 2013 Memorial Cup, however Portland lost the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) championship game, the Memorial Cup, to the Halifax Mooseheads, 6–4. During the season, Wotherspoon was also a member of the Canadian junior team, recording two points in six games at the 2013 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.


SOLUTION: 1

PROBLEM: Question: In what country is Zurich? Passage 1:The poet colleagues shared a sense of Sturm und Drang and empathy, calling it the "Bündner Nachtigall" (Graubünden nightingale). Salis-Seewis returned to Switzerland in 1791, living in Chur and marrying there, on 26 December 1793, the 22-year-old Ursina v. Pestalozzi (Chur 29 September 1771 - Malans 27 June 1835). They had two sons; Johann-Ulrich Dietegan (Comte) v. Salis-Seewis (1794–1844) and Johann-Jakob (Freiherr) v. Salis-Seewis (1800–1881). He had a lively involvement in the political changes in his homeland over the next years lively involved, endorsed the alliance of the Three Leagues of Switzerland to the new France, and the proclaimed Helvetic Republic. After the area was occupied by Austria in the following year, Salis-Seewis and his family had to flee to Zurich. There, he was appointed inspector general of the Helvetican troops. This activity brought him the nickname "poet general". He later went to Bern and received a place on the Court of cassation. When the Act of Mediation was issued by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803, it became possible for Salis-Seewis to return to Graubünden. There he held several public offices until 1817, then he withdrew as Swiss federal colonel. His father had died two years before.
 Passage 2:The fighters discuss their bouts against Muhammad Ali as well as their own lives and careers; Ali's fights against other opponents; his conversion to Islam and the assumption of the name Muhammad Ali; his relationship with the Nation of Islam organization (frequently referred to as the "black Muslims"), its leader, Elijah Muhammad (who bestowed Ali with his new name after he was briefly called Cassius X), and the Nation of Islam's most prominent minister, Malcolm X; Ali's refusal to be inducted into the United States Army to serve in the ongoing Vietnam War in 1967 on moral and religious grounds; the decision by the New York State Athletic Commission to strip him of his championship; his legal case and his reinstatement after the favorable June 28, 1970 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Justices decided 8–0 (with Thurgood Marshall abstaining), that "... for the reasons stated, that the Department [of Justice] was simply wrong as a matter of law in advising that the petitioner's beliefs were not religiously based and were not sincerely held".
 Passage 3:Surahs in the Qur'an are not arranged in the chronological order of revelation because order of wahy or chronological order of revelation is not a part of Quran but according to Aisha: "Muhammed always recited the Quran in Chronological order even in prayer" and there are many verses on arrangement of Quran e.g. Surah Furqhan Verse 32 "...we have repeated it in perfect arrangement" . Also other imaams tell that Ali was ordered by Muhammed to arrange the Quran in Chronological Order. According to Israr Ahmed: Muhammed told his followers the placement (sahaba) in Quranic order of every Wahy revealed along with the original text of Quran, Israr Ahmed's word on this cannot be taken as the only truth or the only view on this subject. Wm Theodore de Bary, an East Asian studies expert, describes that "The final process of collection and codification of the Quran text was guided by one over-arching principle: God's words must not in any way be distorted or sullied by human intervention. For this reason, no serious attempt, apparently, was made to edit the numerous revelations, organize them into thematic units, or present them in chronological order...". Surat Al-Qalam is a Meccan sura and meccan suras are chronologically earlier suras that were revealed to Muhammad at Mecca before the hijrah to Medina in 622 CE. They are typically shorter, with relatively short ayat, and mostly come near the end of the Qur'an's 114 surahs. Most of the surahs containing muqatta'at are Meccan. Henceforth apart from traditions, this surah qualifies to be Meccan typically. According to some classical traditions, commentaries and tafsirs the proposed order is 2nd in place right after Muhammad's first revelation. The supporting argument of this surah being the second revelation is that Arabs were unaware of angels in the time of Jahiliyyah and news of Muhammad's first revelation made them curious about the sanity of Muhammad, thus to refute this idea God revealed the first seven ayaat of Surah Qalam.


SOLUTION: 1

PROBLEM: Question: How many years had Ernest Lawrence worked at UCLA before Backus attended? Passage 1:John Backus was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, where he studied at Reed College, receiving a BA in 1932. He went on to graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he did research in nuclear physics at the Radiation Laboratory under Ernest Lawrence. He received an MA in 1936, and a PhD in 1940. In 1945 he was appointed Professor of Physics at the University of Southern California, a post he retained until his retirement in 1980. During the early part of his career, his research focussed on gaseous discharges in strong magnetic fields. He was also a musician, trained as a performer on piano, bassoon, clarinet and other woodwinds and received the degree of MMus in conducting from the University of Southern California in 1959. In his later career he turned increasingly to the study of musical acoustics, particularly those of wind instruments and organ pipes. In 1969 he published The Acoustical Foundations of Music, a book which became a standard text for introductory courses in musical acoustics. A second edition appeared in 1977. He received the Silver Medal of the Acoustical Society of America in 1986. Backus died in Los Angeles in 1988.
 Passage 2:Gawler was born in Adelaide, South Australia, to Caroline (née Philpot) and Henry Gawler. His grandfather, George Gawler, was the second Governor of South Australia. Gawler attended St Peter's College, Adelaide, and then studied law at the University of Adelaide. Gawler was called to the bar in South Australia in 1886, and left for Western Australia later that year, establishing his own firm in Perth. At one time, he was in partnership with Robert Bruce Burnside, a future Supreme Court justice. Having previously served on the Peppermint Grove Road Board for a period, Gawler was elected to parliament at a 1910 Legislative Council by-election, which had been caused by the resignation of Walter Kingsmill. He died in office in May 1915 (aged 54), of typhoid fever. He had married Eva Mary Waldeck in 1893, with whom he had four children.
 Passage 3:Maryanoff has been active in the fields of medicinal chemistry and organic chemistry. He is an inventor of topiramate, a unique sugar sulfamate drug, which has been marketed worldwide for the treatment of epilepsy and migraine, attaining annual sales of more than $2 billion. Topiramate is also a principal component of the antiobesity drug Qsymia. Maryanoff is an internationally renowned expert in drug design and drug discovery, especially in the application of protein structure-based drug design. He made seminal contributions to understanding the stereochemistry and mechanism of the Wittig reaction; adapted the cobalt-catalyzed alkyne trimerization to the synthesis of macrocycles; and devised novel peptides that undergo self-assembly to mimic native collagen structurally and functionally. Maryanoff is an author on 280 scientific publications, including several books (editor), book chapters, and review articles. He is an inventor on 100 issued U.S. patents, has presented over 185 invited lectures worldwide, and mentored 11 postdoctoral associates. Maryanoff organized and edited a special memorial issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry to honor the memory of Dr. Paul Janssen (2005) and has served on numerous editorial advisory boards for scientific journals and research grant review committees.


SOLUTION:
1