TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you will be shown an extract from a movie plot and a question. You need to provide the correct answer for it. Short answers containing words that are present in the passage are preferred.
PROBLEM: One morning, hit men Charlie (Lee Marvin) and Lee (Clu Gulager) enter a school for the blind and terrorize the principal until she reveals the whereabouts of a teacher, Johnny North (John Cassavetes). As the hitmen walk toward North's upstairs classroom, the teacher receives a call warning him of their arrival. Johnny sadly responds, "It's okay. I know them." As he calmly waits at his desk, Charlie and Lee enter and shoot him multiple times.As they depart by train, Charlie is bothered that North refused to flee, and that they were paid an unusually high fee for such a simple hit. He and Lee run through what they know about the man they have just killed. Johnny was once a champion race car driver whose career ended in a violent crash. Four years before his death, he was involved in a million-dollar robbery of a mail truck. Tempted by the missing million, Charlie and Lee visit Miami to interview Johnny's former mechanic.Earl Sylvester (Claude Akins), who considers himself Johnny's only friend, is devastated to learn of his death. In between sobs and gulps of whiskey, he tells the story as he remembers it. Johnny North was at the top of his profession when he met the beautiful Sheila Farr (Angie Dickinson). Johnny fell in love and planned to propose marriage after winning his next big race. However, Johnny's late nights with Sheila had left him disoriented from lack of sleep. His racing career ended with a fiery crash.At the hospital, Earl revealed to Johnny that Sheila was the mistress of mob boss Jack Browning (Ronald Reagan). Known for her extravagant taste, Sheila has already cheated on Browning with several other sports figures, all of whom met bad ends. Enraged and heartbroken, Johnny rebuffed Sheila's attempts to explain and cut his ties to her.Intrigued, Charlie and Lee approach a former member of Browning's crew, who also reveals his memories. After the crash, Sheila found Johnny working as a pit mechanic. She says a much better job might soon be his for the taking. Browning was planning the robbery of a U.S. postal truck. On Sheila's recommendation, he agreed to Johnny as his getaway driver.Although Johnny still felt betrayed, Sheila said that she had always regretted losing him. Johnny forgave her. He also helped Browning by souping up the getaway car. Browning, however, was enraged when he learned that Sheila had returned to Johnny. In a deliberate provocation, Browning brutally slapped Sheila in front of Johnny, after she defied him. Johnny punched Browning and threatened to kill him if he ever hurt Sheila again. They agreed to "settle this" after the robbery.Browning and North placed a phony detour sign to send the mail truck onto an isolated mountain road. When the truck stopped, the gang held it up at gunpoint, loading more than $1 million into the getaway car. Johnny then forced Browning out of the moving car, driving off alone with the money.After listening to this story, Charlie and Lee pay a visit to Browning, who is now a real estate developer in Los Angeles. Browning insists he is now an honest businessman and has no idea what happened to the money. He reveals that Sheila is staying at a hotel and arranges a meeting with her.To deprive Browning of time to plan an ambush, Charlie and Lee call at Sheila's hotel several hours earlier than agreed. At first Sheila denies all knowledge of Johnny or the money. Charlie and Lee beat her and dangle her by the ankles out a seventh-story window. Terrified, she tells them the truth.The night before the robbery, she told Johnny his life was in danger. Browning, she said, was planning to kill him and pocket his share. Johnny wanted to kill Browning on the spot. Sheila insisted she had a better idea. On her advice, Johnny threw Browning out of the car and drove the money to Sheila.As the two lovers met in a hotel room, Browning showed up. Sheila asked Browning to "do it quickly," and the gangster shot Johnny, severely wounding but not killing him before Johnny escaped. It turned out Sheila and Browning were husband and wife. Sheila expressed fear that Johnny would seek revenge, so Browning hired Charlie and Lee to murder him.Charlie now understands at last why Johnny refused to flee. The only man who refuses to run is a man who considers himself to be already dead. Sheila's betrayal had already killed Johnny long before the bullets ever touched him.Charlie and Lee, with Sheila in tow, intend to confront Browning, but he is waiting nearby with a sniper rifle. He kills Lee and wounds Charlie.Browning and Sheila return home, where they prepare to flee with the money. A mortally wounded Charlie makes it there in time. Sheila, at last revealing her sociopathic nature, frantically denies any role in Johnny's death, insisting that her husband alone was responsible. Charlie calmly shoots Browning dead. He turns his revolver toward Sheila. When she again pleads for her life, Charlie snarls, "Lady, I don't have the time!" He kills Sheila with a single bullet and staggers out the door. Charlie falls dead on the lawn while still gripping the money, as a police car in the background makes its way towards the house., Question: Who has Sheila cheated?

SOLUTION: Answer: Browning

PROBLEM: This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (February 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)The film opens at a meeting of the Board of Chosen Freeholders of Ocean County, New Jersey. Ocean County resident and New Jersey police officer Lieutenant Laurel Hester has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and expected to live only another year, she wishes to pass on her pension to her domestic partner of five years, Stacie Andree. Although New Jersey counties have the option to extend pension benefits to domestic partners, Ocean County Freeholders will not do this. In protest, the state's LGBT civil rights organization, Garden State Equality, organizes hundreds of people to speak out at each of the Freeholders' meetings. The crowds Garden State Equality organizes get bigger and more vociferous at each meeting.Among those speaking out are Laurel's police colleagues and Ocean County residents, describing Laurel's 25 years of exemplary work for the police department, and petitioning the Freeholders to allow her to pass on her pension to Stacie. Laurel's first police partner, Dane Wells, speaks about her and compares the situation to separate drinking fountains and seats at the back of the bus. Freeholder Joseph Vicari says that although they are "anguished" by Laurel's case, they are unable to change things because of the state legislature and moves for an adjournment. The members of the public present are unhappy with this decision and some begin to chant "It's in your power".Outside the administration building, news reporter Ida Siegal explains the background to the case. In 2004 New Jersey passed the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act which allows all gay and lesbian state employees to pass on their benefits, including the pension, to their domestic partners. According to Siegal, all New Jersey counties can choose whether or not to allow their employees to pass on benefits to their partners. Ocean County Freeholders have decided against this.Don Bennett, a reporter for the Ocean County Observer says that every time he talked to the Freeholders, they had a different excuse for not moving forward. Margaret Bonafide of the Asbury Park Press says that while Freeholder John Bartlett had said that such a benefit would have had to have been negotiated in union contract, Freeholder John Kelly had said that giving pension benefits to domestic partners would violate the sanctity of marriage.Stacie says that the home she and Laurel have made together is more than just a house to them, and that she would like to keep it following Laurel's death. As an auto mechanic, Stacie does not earn much money and would be unlikely to be able to afford to keep the house without the pension. Laurel and Stacie are also struggling to pay doctors' bills for Laurel's treatment. Laurel says that if they were a heterosexual couple there would be no problem with Stacie receiving the pension. With not long to live, Laurel says that her only priority is spending time with Stacie and obtaining justice for her.Dane Wells and former police chief Dick Chinery recall Laurel's work as a police officer, remembering her as an excellent marksman and a courageous officer. Wells describes her as the best partner he ever had. Describing himself as conservative, who votes for the Republican Party, Wells says that he had never paid particular attention to social issues or gay rights. Now he was working as hard as he could to help Laurel obtain justice before her death. When she first joined the police, Laurel's police chief and prosecutor knew that she was gay, but made it clear that she should keep that fact to herself. She was happy with that, wanting simply to focus on being the best detective she could be.The day after the Freeholders' meeting, Laurel goes to hospital, and as a result of an MRI scan is told that the cancer has spread to her brain.[5] Stacie spends time arranging payment plans for the medical bills, and praying for Laurel. As a result of chemotherapy, Laurel's hair begins to fall out. Stacie shaves Laurel's head for her and Laurel returns the favor, saying that Stacie now looks more like she did when the couple first met.Six New Jersey counties make the decision to extend pension benefits to domestic partners. Don Bennett says that the Ocean County Freeholders are now under increasing pressure from the press and cannot come up with a good reason for their refusal to do likewise. Although the Freeholders attribute their decision to financial reasons, Dane Wells believes that one or two of the board oppose change, and that the other board members are backing them up. He says that John Kelly has said that his personal belief is that the change would violate the sanctity of marriage, but that this is not the official position of the Freeholders.Laurel grows increasingly sick, losing all of her hair and finding it more difficult to breathe. She speaks of the difficulty of experiencing the physical changes of her illness and knowing that she will only ever get worse. When another Freeholder meeting is held, she is too sick too attend, so she videotapes a message instead. In the tape, she asks the Freeholders to sign the resolution and make a change "for good and righteousness". At the meeting the Freeholder's say that although Laurel has been a valuable employee, they will not allow her to pass on her pension. They say that although they have the money to do so, they will not pay pensions in the absence of a negotiated contract. John Kelly says that he has been misquoted in the press and that although it is a moral issue, he believes that Laurel is a moral person. When Dane Wells ask if they intend to change their minds before Laurel dies, the Freeholders decline to answer the question.Laurel is visited at home by a hospice worker. She says that her symptoms have gotten worse, that they scare her and that she is very concerned with when she will die. When the hospice worker asks her what is most important, Laurel answers "Stacie".Under mounting pressure, and following a telephone call from Governor Jon Corzine at the urging of Garden State Equality, the Freeholders call an emergency meeting. Stacie and Laurel, now in a wheelchair, attend the meeting. Freeholder Bartlett says that it is time to change the situation. The Freeholder of the county makes a motion to pass a resolution to expand pension benefits to county employees under the provisions of the law. The four Freeholders present agree. John Kelly does not attend the meeting. Laurel speaks briefly to news reporters and receives a standing ovation from the people present, including the Freeholders.Laurel goes home to die and the final scene of the film shows her memorial service, attended by Stacie, Dane and her police colleagues. Nine months after her death, the New Jersey Supreme Court rules that same sex couples must have the same rights as heterosexual couples, forcing the state legislature to legalise civil unions in New Jersey., Question: How many board members does Dane Wells believe are opposed to change?

SOLUTION: Answer: one or two

PROBLEM: Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane is upset by his team's loss to the New York Yankees in the 2001 postseason. With the impending departure of star players Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi, and Jason Isringhausen to free agency, Beane needs to assemble a competitive team for 2002, but must overcome Oakland's limited payroll.During a visit to the Cleveland Indians, Beane meets Peter Brand, a young Yale economics graduate with radical ideas about how to assess players' value. Beane tests Brand's theory by asking whether he would have drafted him (out of high school), Beane having been a Major League player before becoming general manager. Though scouts considered Beane a phenomenal prospect, his career in the Major Leagues was disappointing. After some prodding, Brand admits that he would not have drafted him until the ninth round and surmised that Beane would probably have accepted a scholarship to Stanford instead. Impressed, Beane hires the inexperienced Brand to be the Athletics assistant general manager.Oakland team scouts are first dismissive and then hostile towards Brand's non-traditional sabermetric approach to scouting players. Most notably, Grady Fuson aggressively confronts Beane, causing him to be fired. Grady then takes to the radio airwaves and doubts the team's future. Rather than relying on the scouts' experience and intuition, Brand selects players based almost exclusively on their on-base percentage (OBP). Beane signs the ones Brand suggests, such as unorthodox submarine pitcher Chad Bradford, past-his-prime outfielder David Justice, and injured Scott Hatteberg. Beane also faces opposition from Art Howe, the Athletics' manager, who does not agree with the new philosophy. With tensions already high between the two due to a contract dispute, Howe disregards Beane's and Brand's strategy and plays a lineup he prefers.Early in the season, the Athletics fare poorly, leading critics to dismiss the new method as a failure. Beane convinces the owner to stay the course. He trades away the lone traditional first baseman, Carlos PeÃ±a, to force Howe to use Hatteberg at that position, threatening to make similar deals if Howe won't cooperate. The A's win 19 consecutive games, tying for the longest winning streak in American League history. Beane's young daughter implores him to go to a game against the Kansas City Royals, where Oakland is already leading 11â0 after the third inning and appears set to win a record-breaking 20th game in a row. Like many baseball players, Beane is superstitious and avoids games in progress, but upon hearing how well the game is going on the radio, he decides to go. Beane arrives in the fourth inning, only to watch the team falter and eventually allow the Royals to even the score at 11. Finally, the A's do win, on a walk-off home run by Hatteberg.After celebrating that, however, the A's again lose in the postseason, this time to the Minnesota Twins. Beane is disappointed, believing nothing short of a championship should be considered a success. He is contacted by the owner of the Boston Red Sox, who realizes that the sabermetric model is the future of baseball. Beane declines an opportunity to be GM of the Red Sox, despite the $12.5 million salary, which would have made him the highest-paid general manager in sports history. He returns to Oakland, while an epilogue reveals that two years later, the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, using the model pioneered by the Athletics., Question: How man y consecutive games do the A's win?

SOLUTION:
Answer: Nineteen.