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: Prokaryotes have a different way to increase genetic variation. It’s called genetic transfer or bacterial conjugation . It can occur in two ways. One way is when cells “grab” stray pieces of DNA from their environment. The other way is when cells directly exchange DNA (usually plasmids) with other cells. For example, as shown in Figure below , the donor cell makes a structure called an F pilus , or sex pilus. The F pilus attaches one cell to another cell. The membranes of the two cells merge and genetic material, usually a plasmid , moves into the recipient cell. Genetic transfer makes bacteria very useful in biotechnology. It can be used to create bacterial cells that carry new genes. 
Story: Two researches studied living organisms, Joe studied eukaryotes, while Bill studied prokaryotes. They were fascinated by genetic variation.

SOLUTION: Which researcher observed fewer cells directly exchange DNA (usually plasmids) with other cells?

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Mantle melting can come about three ways: (1) when the temperature rises, (2) if the pressure lowers (which lowers the melting point), and (3) if water is added, which lowers the melting point. Two of these (1 and 3) might explain why there are volcanoes at convergent plate boundaries the temperature of the subducting plate increases as it sinks into the hot mantle (1). Sediments lying on top of the subducting plate contain water. As the sediments subduct, the water rises into the overlying mantle material. This lowers the melting temperature of the mantle (3). When the mantle above the subducting plate melts, volcanoes form above it. This leads to volcanoes in an island arc or continental arc. 
Story: Two brothers Syd and Dan went to college. Syd studied plate tectonics and mantle melting. His brother Dan got to study types of soil and pedology.

SOLUTION: Which brother studied less about added water lowering the mantle's melting point?

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Acceleration is a measure of the change in velocity of a moving object. It measures the rate at which velocity changes. Velocity, in turn, is a measure of the speed and direction of motion, so a change in velocity may reflect a change in speed, a change in direction, or both. Both velocity and acceleration are vectors. A vector is any measurement that has both size and direction. People commonly think of acceleration as in increase in speed, but a decrease in speed is also acceleration. In this case, acceleration is negative and called deceleration. A change in direction without a change in speed is acceleration as well. 
Story: Jacob is an avid street car racer who is driving in his sleek black Mustang. He comes to a red light and sees the car next to him is an expensive looking Honda Civic, owned by a man named Alejandro. Jacob and Alejandro agree to race, and when the light turns green they both slam their feet on the gas pedal and take off. Jacob's car arrives at the light pole down the street from the light sooner than Alejandro's car, and he wins the race.

SOLUTION:
Which person's car, Jacob's or Alejandro's, must have accelerated faster?