TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you're given a question, along with three passages, 1, 2, and 3. Your job is to determine which passage can be used to answer the question by searching for further information using terms from the passage. Indicate your choice as 1, 2, or 3.
PROBLEM: Question: Which ruler died first? Passage 1:Finn's first commission was as project manager for the Rice Hotel, under contract with the firm of Mauran, Russell & Crowell. The owner of the new hotel, Jesse H. Jones, soon after established a collaboration with Finn which would change the face of Downtown Houston. Finn designed two buildings for Jones across the way from the Rice Hotel: the Foster Building, aka the Houston Chronicle Building, in 1914, and the Rusk Building in 1916. The corner of Texas and Travis was dominated by buildings built by Finn and Jones. In 1926, Finn designed a new seventeen-story wing for the Rice Hotel on behalf of Jones. Finn did architectural work for other commercial clients in the 1920s. He completed State National Bank Building (NHRP-listed) at 412 Main Street in 1923. Jones contracted with Finn to build the Lamar Hotel, where Jones established his new residence. The Jones apartment consumed the whole top floor, though he hired John F. Staub for the interior design. Jones also promised a venue for the 1928 Democratic National Convention without consulting the city of Houston, pledging $200,000 of his own capital. He engaged Finn and Kenneth Franzheim to design and erect the Sam Houston Hall in just four months. The Sam Houston Hall, ostensibly built to be a temporary structure, was larger than Madison Square Garden, and equipped with heavy-duty fans and apertures between the roof and the walls to facilitate air flow. Jones contracted with Finn on another project in downtown Houston, this time with in collaboration with Franzheim and J.E.R. Carpenter, to finish the 37-story, art deco Gulf Building in 1929 at that time the tallest building in Texas.
 Passage 2:In the spring of 1902, Bulgaria, an Ottoman vassal state which was interested in acquiring Macedonia, signed a military convention with Russia. Late in the fall, Russia, supported by the United Kingdom and France, proposed to the Ottomans political reforms for the Macedonian vilayets. On 8 December, the Ottoman sultan, Abdul Hamid II, signed a decree implementing most of the reforms. In February 1903, the new Russian foreign minister, Vladimir Lamsdorf, visited Vienna and signed the so-called "Vienna Program" on Macedonian reforms. The program was substantially the same as the Ottoman decree of December. The immediate provocation of a new agreement at Mürzsteg was the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising that broke out on 2 August. With its quick suppression, the Vienna Program lay dead. In September Tsar Nicholas II of Russia visited the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria-Hungary at the latter's castle in Mürzsteg, Austria. The two rulers put their signatures to a new memorandum, substantially identical to the Vienna Program, which called for the appointment of one Russian and one Austro-Hungarian civil agent to oversee the reform of the administration, judiciary and local gendarmerie in the Macedonian vilayets. In all these institutions Christians were to take part. After Abdul Hamid accepted the proposal in November, Russia appointed one N. Demerik as its agent, and Austria chose one G. Müller. They began their work under Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha, the Inspector-General of Macedonia, in early 1904. Under the Mürzsteg program, each Great Power appointed an advisory official to the Ottoman official in charge of reforming the gendarmerie in each province. Austria-Hungary appointed an advisor to the sanjak of Üsküp, Russia to the sanjak of Thessaloniki, France to the sanjak of Siroz and Britain to the sanjak of Drama.
 Passage 3:Crimea: The Last Crusade is a panoramic history of the Crimean War of 1853–56. Drawing extensively from Russian, French and Ottoman as well as British archives, it combines military, diplomatic, political and cultural history, examining how the war left a lasting mark on the national consciousness of Britain, France, Russia and Turkey. Figes sets the war in the context of the Eastern Question, the diplomatic and political problems caused by the decay of the Ottoman Empire. In particular, he emphasises the importance of the religious struggle between Russia as the defender of the Orthodox and France as the protector of the Catholics in the Ottoman Empire. He frames the war within a longer history of religious conflict between Christians and Muslims in the Balkans, southern Russia and the Caucasus that continues to this day. Figes stresses the religious motive of the Tsar Nicholas I in his bold decision to go to war, arguing that Nicholas was swayed by the ideas of the Pan-Slavs to invade Moldavia and Wallachia and encourage Slav revolts against the Ottomans, despite his earlier adherence to the Legitimist principles of the Holy Alliance. He also shows how France and Britain were drawn into the war by popular ideas of Russophobia that swept across Europe in the wake of the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848. As one reviewer wrote, Figes shows "how the cold war of the Soviet era froze over fundamental fault lines that had opened up in the 19th century."


SOLUTION: 2

PROBLEM: Question: Is the political party Slobe joined in 1942 still exist? Passage 1:Elysium was produced by Bill Block, Neill Blomkamp, and Simon Kinberg, and written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, the director and co-writer of District 9 (2009). It reunites Blomkamp with some of his District 9 crew, such as editor Julian Clarke, production designer Philip Ivey, cinematographer Trent Opaloch, and actor Sharlto Copley, playing one of the film's antagonists. Elysium is a co-production of TriStar Pictures and MRC. Although the film's story is set in 2154, Blomkamp has stated that it is a comment on the contemporary human condition. "Everybody wants to ask me lately about my predictions for the future," the director has said, "No, no, no. This isn't science fiction. This is today. This is now." In January 2011, independent studio Media Rights Capital met with major studios to distribute Elysium, and Blomkamp shared art designs of his proposed science fiction film. The art designs won over the executives at Sony Pictures, who bought the film after making a more attractive offer than the other studios. With a production budget of , production began in July 2011. The film's Earth-bound scenes were shot in a dump in the poor Iztapalapa district on the outskirts of Mexico City, while the scenes for Elysium were shot in Vancouver and the wealthy Huixquilucan-Interlomas suburbs of Mexico City. Matt Damon shaved his head for the role of Max. The main role was first offered to Watkin Tudor Jones (aka Ninja), a South African rapper, who despite being a fan of District 9 (he has a D9 tattoo on his inner lip) did not take the role. The role was then offered to rapper Eminem, but he wanted the film to be shot in Detroit. That was not an option for the two studios, so Blomkamp moved on to Damon as his next choice. Futuristic designs were executed by Philip Ivey after long periods of researching and studying older science fiction films. Ivey has continuously cited Syd Mead as a substantial influence for the film. Weta Workshop created the exosuits for Damon and Copley's characters, while the complicated visual effects were handled primarily by Image Engine (who also collaborated on District 9) with additional work by Whiskytree, MPC, The Embassy and Industrial Light and Magic. Re-shoots took place through October 2012. The film's music score was composed by newcomer Ryan Amon and recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the Philharmonia Orchestra. The soundtrack was released on August 6, 2013.
 Passage 2:Slobe was born in Pittsburgh to a well-to-do Jewish family, and grew up in Chicago, enrolling in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago at 16; by 19 she was exhibiting paintings and winning prizes. She began exhibiting sculpture as well by the late 1930s, and came eventually to be known more as a sculptor than as a painter. In 1939 and 1940 she worked for the Works Progress Administration, creating art and teaching in a number of states, including Oregon. She became acquainted at this point with George Perle, whom she married in 1940; in 1942 the couple joined the Socialist Workers Party, and she took the pseudonym "Laura Gray". She was soon tasked with assisting in the organization of automotive workers, and it was at this time that she began her cartooning career. Encouraged to submit drawings to The Militant, her first appeared in the paper on March 4, 1944; she went on to become the paper's staff artist, submitting at least one cartoon almost weekly for the rest of her life. These drawings, which have been compared to the work of Boardman Robinson, Hugo Gellert, and Robert Minor, would be published in Trotskyist publications around the world. Some of her cartoons on the subject of civil rights would also be published in the African-American press.
 Passage 3:Major Granville O. Haller of the 4th Infantry led an expedition from Fort Dalles into central Washington, and Lieutenant William A. Slaughter also of the 4th Infantry with forty-eight men from Fort Steilacoom crossed Natchez Pass to aid Major Haller when attempts to move the Indians of Puget Sound onto reservations caused trouble between them and some white settlers. Captain Maloney of the 4th Infantry, and Captain Gilmore Hayes of the Washington Volunteers had started for Yakima via Natchez Pass when they were overtaken on 29 October 1855 by the Nisqually tribe under Chief Leschi. Lt. Slaughter and his men plus Captain Hayes' force met the Indians at the crossing of the White River, and on 4 November 1855 fought without decisive results. The following day the troops met hostiles in the difficult country between the White and Green Rivers. The troops fell back into the valleys and on 24 November 1855, Lt. Slaughter, commanding a platoon of the 4th Infantry and a company of volunteers, was attacked in his camp at Puyallup. The lieutenant moved to the present site of Auburn and here again the Indians attacked. Slaughter and two corporals of the volunteer company were killed, four other men were injured, one later dying of his wounds. For years the town, which sprang up on this site, was known as Slaughter in honor of this officer of the 4th Infantry; it was later changed to Auburn.


SOLUTION: 2

PROBLEM: Question: How long had the WACA Ground been in existence for the year Millar was part of a pace attack that included David Boyd? Passage 1:Geoffrey Alan Millar (born 22 November 1955) is a former Australian cricketer who played several matches for Western Australia during the early 1980s. From Perth, Millar played at colts level during the late 1970s, generally as an all-rounder. He made his Sheffield Shield debut for Western Australia during the 1981–82 competition, and failed to take a wicket in what was to be his only first-class match. In the match, against Queensland at the WACA Ground in February 1982, he was part of a pace attack that included David Boyd (who he opened the bowling with in the first innings), Mick Malone, and Ken MacLeay. Millar also appeared at List A level several times for Western Australia. In his first match, the third-place playoff of the 1981–82 McDonald's Cup, he took 2/17 and scored 30 runs, and was thus named man of the match. His two further matches both occurred in the following year's tournament. At grade cricket level, Millar played 177 matches for the Mount Lawley District Cricket Club.
 Passage 2:Haskell invented a formula for a waterproof glue in 1913. The glue was made from blood-album. From this glue he made a material of "plies" of crossed grain layers of wood, that is known today as plywood. Haskell named this composite material after himself with the brand name Haskelite. He worked out the mechanics of being able to mold and shape this plywood into three dimensions. From this plywood he made a canoe that was molded from one piece of plywood. The canoe plywood was shaped by hydraulic presses as an innovation devised by Haskell. The unusually designed canoe of no skeleton framework or ribs was given the brand name Arex ("king of the water") and made out of the Haskell Manufacturing Company building on N. Rowe Street in Ludington, Michigan. It later became better known just as the Haskell canoe. Haskell formed the Haskell Manufacturing Company in 1916 to make boats and canoes. He incorporated it with $100,000 in 1917. The Haskell Boat Company made 600 Haskell canoes in the first year.
 Passage 3:He was born in Breslau, Prussia (now the Polish city of Wrocław), into a wealthy Polish-Jewish family whose parents had come to Breslau from Pilica, near Zawiercie, in 1854. He was an ardent Jew at a time when many Jews downplayed their Jewishness. He showed early talent from a very tender age, beginning his musical training at home until 1865, when his family moved to Dresden. There he continued his piano studies at the conservatory. He moved to Berlin in 1869 to continue his studies first at the Julius Stern's Conservatory, where he studied piano with Eduard Franck and composition with Friedrich Kiel, and then at Theodor Kullak's Neue Akademie der Tonkunst, where he studied composition with Richard Wüerst and orchestration with Heinrich Dorn. There he became close friends with the Scharwenka brothers, Xaver and Philipp. In 1871 he accepted Kullak's offer to become a teacher in his academy; as he was also a more than competent violinist, he sometimes played first violin in the orchestra.


SOLUTION:
1