TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.
PROBLEM: Passage: Novelist Geoff and his wife Sally rent an isolated countryside bungalow to enable Geoff to finish his latest book without the distractions of life in London. On their arrival, they are horrified to find a dead man in the property; before they can report the discovery they are confronted by Duke, a gangland boss, and his henchmen who have, it transpires, been using the empty property as a hide-out for stolen valuables which they are planning to smuggle out of the country. A rival gangster, Juan, also has his eye on the goods and has discovered their whereabouts. The dead man is one of his minions.
Geoff and Sally are held captive, and matters take a turn for the worse when Juan and his men also arrive on the scene, forcing a stand-off between the two factions during which Geoff and Sally are roughly-treated by both sides. Duke starts to fall for Sally, and his obvious interest in her antagonises his girlfriend Rina. Eventually there is a bloody shoot-out between the rival gangs, with Duke's men getting the better of the exchange. Duke boards a plane to make good his escape with the valuables, but the plane is shot down by the jealous and vengeful Rina.

SOLUTION: Who worked for Juan?

PROBLEM: Passage: A remix album, titled Year Zero Remixed, was released in November 2007. Due to the expiration of his contract with Interscope Records, the album's release, marketing, and promotion were completely in Reznor's control. The album features remixes from artists including The Faint, Ladytron, Bill Laswell, Saul Williams, Olof Dreijer of The Knife, and Sam Fogarino of Interpol. Reznor himself strongly supports fan-made remixes of songs from the album, as evidenced by his decision to upload every song in multi-track form to the then-newly launched Nine Inch Nails remix website.  Instrumental versions of the songs on Year Zero are available at the site for download in multiple formats, including MP3, WAV, GarageBand, and Ableton Live formats.
A planned film adaption of Year Zero became a television project in 2007. Reznor met with various writers and pitched the idea to television networks. The 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike affected the pre-production stage. Nevertheless, Reznor commented in 2008 that the project is "still churning along", and that he had begun working with American film producer Lawrence Bender. In 2010, Reznor started developing the Year Zero miniseries with HBO and BBC Worldwide Productions. Reznor and Bender collaborated with Carnivàle writer Daniel Knauf to create the science fiction epic. When asked about the miniseries during an "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit on November 13, 2012, Reznor said it was "currently in a holding state" and explained, "We [Reznor and Sheridan] didn't find the right match with a writer, and really have been avoiding doing what we should have done from the beginning: write it ourselves. [...] This project means a lot to me and will see the light of day in one form or another." In 2017, during an interview promoting new Nine Inch Nails EP Add Violence, Reznor said that "They got so far as hiring a writer for it, but then it fell to shit because we never had the right writer. I should have just done it [myself].".

SOLUTION: What is the last name of the person whose contract expired?

PROBLEM: Passage: Freckles Winslow is on his way home from college. On the bus he encounters a crook, "Muggsy" Dolan who calls himself Jack Leach. Jack is on the run from the law, and is looking for a safe place to hide. The two men come to talking and Freckles mentions his serene home town to Jack, having only good things to say about it. Jack decides to tag along and take his refuge in Freckles home town. With Freckles help he gets to stay at the local hotel, owned by Danny Doyle, who is Freckles' friend. Danny is about to rerun the road through town, so that it runs over a number of worthless lots of land he has bought. Danny bought the real estate because he thought he could find gold on them, using a new expensive device he has bought. Danny needs Freckles to help him get a favorable decision by Freckles' father, who is one of the two road commissioners.

SOLUTION:
What is the last name of the person who encounters a crook?