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 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."
PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Old age begins in the mid-60s and lasts until the end of life. Many people over 65 have retired from work, freeing up their time for hobbies, grandchildren, and other interests. Stamina, strength, reflex time, and the senses all decline during old age, and the number of brain cells decreases as well. The immune system becomes less efficient, increasing the risk of serious illnesses such as cancer and pneumonia. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease that cause loss of mental function also become more common. 
Story: Mark has just graduated high school and is going to visit his grandpa, Tom, over the summer for a couple days. Since Tom is retired, he often has plenty of time to go fishing, and he even has a small cabin by the lake. The two men are planning to spend several days at the cabin cooking, fishing, chopping firewood to make fires and just general outdoor activities.

SOLUTION: Does Mark have more or less stamina than Tom?

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: A large log placed in a fire will burn relatively slowly. If the same mass of wood were added to the fire in the form of small twigs, they would burn much more quickly. This is because the twigs provide a greater surface area than the log does. An increase in the surface area of a reactant increases the rate of a reaction. Surface area is larger when a given amount of a solid is present as smaller particles. A powdered reactant has a greater surface area than the same reactant as a solid chunk. In order to increase the surface area of a substance, it may be ground into smaller particles or dissolved into a liquid. In solution, the dissolved particles are separated from each other and will react more quickly with other reactants. 
Story: Two friends went camping and made a fire each. Bill used a few large logs while Tim used kindlings, wood chips and sawdust. they both brought the same volume of wood.

SOLUTION: Which friend didn't make a fire that burned faster?

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Almost all earthquakes occur at plate boundaries. All types of plate boundaries have earthquakes. Convection within the Earth causes the plates to move. As the plates move, stresses build. When the stresses build too much, the rocks break. The break releases the energy that was stored in the rocks. The sudden release of energy creates an earthquake. During an earthquake the rocks usually move several centimeters or rarely as much as a few meters. Elastic rebound theory describes how earthquakes occur ( Figure below ). 
Story: Two brothers loved geology. Bob studied sedimentary rocks while Dan studied about earthquakes and their location.

SOLUTION:
Which brother studied less about convection causing plates to move?