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.
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Question: Background Paragraph: Machines make work easier by increasing the amount of force that is applied, increasing the distance over which the force is applied, or changing the direction in which the force is applied. Contrary to popular belief, machines do not increase the amount of work that is done. They just change how the work is done. So if a machine increases the force applied, it must apply the force over a shorter distance. Similarly, if a machine increases the distance over which the force is applied, it must apply less force. 
Story: John wanted to invent a machine. To that end, he devised an experiment in which he used three components, comp A, comp B, and comp C. Comp A was a machine that applied force over a shorter distance. Comp B was also a machine, but it applied force over a longer distance. Comp C was not a machine. 
Question: Which component would less likely make work easier, comp A or comp C?

Answer: comp C.


Question: 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: Odis had a busy day storing XML. At 8 AM, he stored 202 Gigabytes to the database. At 9 AM, he stored 302 Gigabytes to the database. At 10 AM, he stored 402 Gigabytes to the database. At 11 AM, he got breakfast. At 12 PM, he stored 502 Gigabytes to the database. At 1 PM, he stored 602 Gigabytes to the database. At 2 PM, she went to sleep to finish storing XML later on that night. 
Question: What time did access times go up: 9 AM or 2 PM?

Answer: 9 AM.


Question: Background Paragraph: Using longitudinal data from over 100 countries, Diener and his colleagues showed that rich countries are in general happier than poor countries (Diener, Tay, & Oishi, 2013).[17] Also, life satisfaction for most countries goes up as they become wealthier over time. Diener identified three factors that influence the relationship between income and SWB. Namely, rising income most likely results in higher SWB when it leads to greater optimism, financial satisfaction and household material prosperity among citizens. Furthermore, Diener and his colleagues investigated the relationship between income and different elements of SWB. They illustrated that income has stronger influence on people’s evaluation of their lives than the positive or negative emotions they experience over time (Diener, Kahneman, Tov, & Arora, 2010).[18] The study points to the necessity to evaluate different elements of SWB separately instead of treating happiness as a single entity. 
Story: Over the years, the town of Euphoria has grown more successful and wealthier than anyone ever thought. As the wealth has increased and people have acquired more material possessions, their outlook on life has become more positive and it has been noted that the citizens have a lower incidence of depression. The town of Zenphora, on the other hand, has taken a downward financial turn over the past 50 years. The citizens have had to sell their worldly goods just to make ends meet and many do not have a good feeling about what their future holds. 
Question: Which town is less optimistic, Euphoria or Zenphora?

Answer:
Zenphora.