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: The water cycle involves the exchange of energy, which leads to temperature changes. When water evaporates, it takes up energy from its surroundings and cools the environment. When it condenses, it releases energy and warms the environment. These heat exchanges influence climate. 
Story: The community around Lake Michigan experienced an insane weather week. On Sunday, 2 inches of Lake Charles evaporated. On Monday, another inch of Lake Charles evaporated. On Tuesday, 3 more inches of Lake Charles evaporated. On Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, there was condensation all day. 
Question: Which day did the environment in the town have a higher cooling: Saturday or Monday?

SOLUTION: Monday.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Predators play an important role in an ecosystem. For example, if they did not exist, then a single species could become dominant over others. Grazers on a grassland keep grass from growing out of control. Predators can be keystone species . These are species that can have a large effect on the balance of organisms in an ecosystem. For example, if all of the wolves are removed from a population, then the population of deer or rabbits may increase. If there are too many deer, then they may decrease the amount of plants or grasses in the ecosystem. Decreased levels of producers may then have a detrimental effect on the whole ecosystem. In this example, the wolves would be a keystone species. 
Story: Mike is studying the predator prey relationship. He is specifically studying three species, species A, species B, and species C. Species A is a predator; species B is the prey; and species C is a plant species that species B lives on. Mike now needs to figure out how the predator prey relationship balance the ecosystem. 
Question: If species C population decrease, would it affect the ecosystem positively or negatively?

SOLUTION: negatively.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Carbon monoxide is used in modified atmosphere packaging systems in the US, mainly with fresh meat products such as beef, pork, and fish to keep them looking fresh. The carbon monoxide combines with myoglobin to form carboxymyoglobin, a bright-cherry-red pigment. Carboxymyoglobin is more stable than the oxygenated form of myoglobin, oxymyoglobin, which can become oxidized to the brown pigment metmyoglobin. This stable red color can persist much longer than in normally packaged meat. Typical levels of carbon monoxide used in the facilities that use this process are between 0.4% to 0.5%. 
Story: Anna is going grocery shopping today. She gets to the meat section and decides to buy some ground beef. While looking at the cases she notices 2 brands of meat, Brand A and brand B. Bother were packaged the same day but package B's meat is noticeably more brown in color. 
Question: Will the red pigment of meat last longer or shorter if it is treated with carbon monoxide?

SOLUTION:
longer.