TASK DEFINITION: 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 are also given a question about the story that requires an understanding of the relationship described in the background paragraph and the story. You need to come up with an answer to the given question; the answer will be a span from either the question or the story. In order to correctly answer the given question, you need to understand the relationship mentioned in the background paragraph and should be able to use it to understand that in the story. Your answer can not consist of any word that is not mentioned in any of these: the background paragraph, the story, or the question. You can directly copy and paste a span from the story or the question while answering the given question.
PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: At birth, a rattlesnake hatchling has only a small button or 'primordial rattle' which is firmly attached to the tip of the tail.[13] The first segment is added when the hatchling sheds its skin for the first time.[14] A new section is added each time the skin is shed until a rattle is formed. The rattle grows as the snake ages but segments are also prone to breaking off and hence the length of a rattle is not a reliable indicator of the age of a snake.[15]. 
Story: Dan found three rattle snakes: one only had one rattle, the second snake had 4 rattles and the third snake had seven rattles on its tail. 
Question: Which snake had more segments, the first or the second snake Dan found?

SOLUTION: the second.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Candied fruit, also known as crystallized fruit or glacé fruit, has existed since the 14th century. Whole fruit, smaller pieces of fruit, or pieces of peel, are placed in heated sugar syrup, which absorbs the moisture from within the fruit and eventually preserves it. Depending on size and type of fruit, this process of preservation can take from several days to several months.[1] This process allows the fruit to retain its quality for a year.[2]

The continual process of drenching the fruit in syrup causes the fruit to become saturated with sugar, preventing the growth of spoilage microorganisms due to the unfavourable osmotic pressure this creates.[3]. 
Story: Mary and Ann got some fruit as a gift from a friend. Mary decided to candy the fruit, while Ann decided to eat them fresh, Mary received plums, peaches, apples and oranges. Ann got pears, quince, cherries and blackberries. 
Question: Which fruit retained their quality longer plums or quince?

SOLUTION: plums.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Storing large volumes of data – When storing XML to either file or database, the volume of data a system produces can often exceed reasonable limits, with a number of detriments: the access times go up as more data is read, CPU load goes up as XML data takes more power to process, and storage costs go up. By storing XML data in Fast Infoset format, data volume may be reduced by as much as 80 percent. 
Story: Roger had a busy day storing XML. At 4 PM, he stored 22211 Gigabytes to the database. At 5 PM, he stored 33322 Gigabytes to the database. At 6 PM, he stored 44433 Gigabytes to the database. At 7 PM, he got dinner. At 8 PM, he stored 55544 Gigabytes to the database. At 9 PM, he stored 66655 Gigabytes to the database. At 10 PM, he went to sleep to finish storing XML tomorrow. 
Question: What time did access times go up: 4 PM or 7 PM?

SOLUTION:
4 PM.