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: 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 sister cities were both situated on plate boundaries, close to volcanoes, on different continents. Red city was 10 miles from a volcano, while Tree city was 60 miles away. Red city experienced many earthquakes, Tree city few and far between. 
Question: Which city experienced the release of energy that was stored in the rocks less often?

SOLUTION: Tree.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: The lungs of mammals are unique in having alveoli . These are tiny, sac-like structures. Each alveolus is surrounded by a network of very small blood vessels (see Figure below ). Because there are millions of alveoli in each lung, they greatly increase the surface area for gas exchange between the lungs and bloodstream. Human lungs, for example, contain about 300 million alveoli. They give the lungs a total surface area for gas exchange of up to 90 square meters (968 square feet). That’s about as much surface area as one side of a volleyball court!. 
Story: David is investigating the breathing process of different organisms. He found that humans have alveoli to help them with gas exchange. He got curious about other organisms that do not have alveoli. To compare these two groups he labeled organisms with alveoli as group A and organisms without alveoli as group B. 
Question: Would group A have greater or smaller gas exchange than group B?

SOLUTION: greater.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Turner et al (2006) derived crash prediction models for this report’s predecessor and found a
pronounced ‘safety in numbers’ effect in the models. Using the crash prediction model for mid-block
locations, generic motorist and cyclist volumes can be used to demonstrate the impacts on the
expected crash rate of varying motor vehicle and cycle volumes. As shown in figure 2.20, an increase
in the proportion of cyclists to the overall traffic volume causes an increase in expected crashes at
mid-block locations, but the crash rate increases at a decreasing rate. That is to say, the crash rate per
cyclist goes down as the cycle volume increases. 
Story: There were a lot of motorcycles on Interstate 11 last week. On Wednesday, there were 1500 motorcyclists. On Thursday, there were 2500 motorcyclists. On Friday, there were 3500 motorcyclists. On Saturday, there were 4500 motorcyclists. On Sunday, there were 5500 motorcyclists. On Monday, there were 6500 motorcyclists. On Tuesday, there were 7500 motorcyclists. 
Question: What day had a lower crash rate per cyclist: Saturday or Monday?

SOLUTION:
Monday.