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: 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: Carl had a busy day storing XML. At 1 PM, he stored 1000 Gigabytes to the database. At 2 PM, he stored 2000 Gigabytes to the database. At 3 PM, he stored 3000 Gigabytes to the database. At 4 PM, he got dinner. At 5 PM, he stored 4000 Gigabytes to the database. At 6 PM, he stored 5000 Gigabytes to the database. At 7 PM, he went to sleep to finish storing XML tomorrow. 
Question: What time did storage costs go up:  3 PM or 7 PM?

SOLUTION: 3 PM.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Air pollution is harmful to human beings and other living things. About 22 million people die from air pollution each year. Breathing polluted air increases the risk of developing lung diseases such as asthma and lung cancer. Breathing bad air also increases the chances of dying from other diseases. Children are most likely to be affected by air pollution. That’s because their lungs are still developing and growing. Children also take in more air for their size than adults do. Some air pollutants damage the environment as well as the health of living things. The type of damage depends on the pollutant. Air pollution can also harm the environment. 
Story: Two sister cities had different environments. Shanghai had big problems with air pollution while Berna took very good care of the surrounding environment and air quality. 
Question: Which city had people at increased risk of dying from other diseases?

SOLUTION: Shanghai.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: The brains of all mammals have a unique layer of nerve cells covering the cerebrum. This layer is called the neocortex (the pink region of the brains in Figure above ). The neocortex plays an important role in many complex brain functions. In some mammals, such as rats, the neocortex is relatively smooth. In other mammals, especially humans, the neocortex has many folds. The folds increase the surface area of the neocortex. The larger this area is, the greater the mental abilities of an animal. 
Story: Two students read about brains in the animal kingdom. Tom read more about the brains of mammals, while Reed learned more about the brains of amphibians. 
Question: Which student learned less about the human neocortex?

SOLUTION:
Reed.