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 is an earthquake. During an earthquake the rocks usually move several centimeters. Rarely, they may move as much as a few meters. Elastic rebound theory describes how earthquakes occur ( Figure below ). 
Story: Tim the seismologist studied data from two cities: Tokyo and Kansas City. Tokyo experienced many more earthquakes than Kansas City. 
Question: Which city experiences more energy release because of rocks breaking?

SOLUTION: Tokyo.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Clouds on Earth are made of water vapor. Venus's clouds are a lot less pleasant. They are made of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and large amounts of corrosive sulfuric acid! The atmosphere of Venus is so thick that the pressure on the surface of Venus is very high. In fact, it is 90 times greater than the pressure at Earth’s surface! The thick atmosphere causes a strong greenhouse effect. As a result, Venus is the hottest planet. Even though it is farther from the Sun, Venus is much hotter even than Mercury. Temperatures at the surface reach 465°C (860°F). That’s hot enough to melt lead!. 
Story: Two students were learning about atmospheres and planets. Dan learned about the atmosphere of Earth, while Nate learned about planet Venus and its atmosphere. 
Question: Which student learned less about the planet with a hotter surface temperature?

SOLUTION: Dan.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Ecologically, the expansion of drainage systems has had tremendous negative effects. Hundreds of thousands of wetland species experienced significant population declines as their habitat was increasingly fragmented and destroyed. Although market hunting within the Central Flyway was a contributing factor in the decline of many waterfowl species' numbers in the early decades of the twentieth century, loss of breeding habitat to agricultural expansion is certainly the most significant. Early maps of midwestern states depict many lakes and marshes that are either nonexistent or significantly reduced in area today. Channelization, a related process of concentrating and facilitating the flow of water from agricultural areas, also contributed to this degradation. 
Story: Timber village started a channelization process by draining all the swamps near their village. Hill village situated 10 miles to the south, left their swamps untouched. 
Question: Which village drained fewer swamps situated in their vicinity?

SOLUTION:
Hill.