TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you will be presented with a passage and have to answer a question based on your understanding of the events inferred from the passage. Try to find the best answer that is most likely to fill in "_". Note that the URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
PROBLEM: The gunman who killed nine people last week at an Oregon college shot himself in front of his classmates after being wounded by two hero cops. Also revealed on Wednesday was that Umpqua Community College shooter Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, was discharged from the Army after attempting to commit suicide. Harper-Mercer was discharged after one month of basic training at Fort Jackson, in South Carolina, in 2008. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Army wouldn't disclose details of the 2008 suicide attempt but that it indicates Harper-Mercer was deeply troubled long before he opened fire on his classmates last Thursday.Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, shot himself in a classroom after being wounded by two hero cops who opened fireHarper-Mercer was discharged from the Army in 2008 for trying to commit suicideTodd Spingath was one of two officers to take down Oregon shooterHis partner and fellow vet, Joe Kaney, was identified earlier this weekThe pair have been hailed for preventing further potential devastationThey rushed into Umpqua Community College five minutes after alert 
 Question:At a Wednesday news conference, authorities said that two police officers in plainclothes were the first to confront Harper-_ after he began shooting at his morning writing class.

SOLUTION: Mercer

PROBLEM: Washington (CNN) If Donald Trump's campaign aides like Paul Manafort were contacting Russian officials during the campaign, then the President had nothing to do with it, claims former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. "If anybody crossed a line and gave information to a foreign agent or foreign government or foreign intelligence official, whether that's Paul Manafort or it's Rick Gates or anybody else, I hope they're held accountable," Lewandowski told David Axelrod on "The Axe Files," a podcast from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN. He later added: "Any staffer who contacted or potentially contacted a Russian agent or a Russian official has done so on their own accord and not at the direction of the campaign, the President or anybody else in the administration."Lewandowski attempted to shield the PresidentManafort has denied the alleged contact as "100% not true" 
 Question:Lewandowski and _ were considered part of two rival power centers in the campaign during the time they overlapped.

SOLUTION: Paul Manafort

PROBLEM: Given the rise in global temperatures, it would be fair to assume glaciers around the world are all melting and retreating, but a series of new GIFs suggests otherwise. Time-lapse animations show 'rivers of ice' in northern Pakistan, expanding, contracting and surging forwards. A Swiss researcher compiled the clips of glaciers in the Karakoram range using 25 years of Landsat satellite images, and they show many glaciers in the region are actually increasing in size. Dr Frank Paul at the University of Zurich in Switzerland created four GIFS, which are made from combined and compressed satellite images. Each GIF shows 25 years of glacier movement in just one second taken from four regions - Baltoro, Panmah, Skamri–Sarpo Laggo, and Shaksgam – in the central Karakoram.Animations show glacier movements accelerated by 800 million timesSatellite images taken over 25 years were combined to create time-lapsesMany glaciers in the Karakoram range are actually increasing in sizeCurious 'surge' behaviour makes them move 100 times faster than usual 
 Question:He then used free software to create a looping animation for each of the four _ regions.

SOLUTION:
Karakoram