In this task, you're given a statement and three sentences as choices. Your job is to determine the neutral choice based on your inference from the statement and your commonsense knowledge. The neutral choice is a sentence that neither agrees nor disagrees with the statement. Indicate your answer as '1', '2', or '3', corresponding to the choice number of the selected sentence. If sentence X agrees with sentence Y, one's correctness follows from the other one. If sentence X disagrees with sentence Y, they can not be correct at the same time.

Statement: Magic to lift things instead of honest ropes that shrink and wood that swells. Choices: 1. Magic is the most honest way to lift things. 2. Magic is dishonest because it can only be used by politicians. 3. Ropes and wood are more host ways to lift things than magic.
2

Statement: Miss Howard has previously made up a cock and bull story about him and Mrs. Raikes to account for his holding his tongue afterwards.  Choices: 1. No one believed the story that Miss Howard has made up. 2. Miss Howard has never made any suspicious stories. 3. He held his tongue, and Miss Howard made up a story to account for it.
1

Statement: This left 100,000 dead, with even more dying from famine and disease, while 150,000 were taken captive. Choices: 1. Many people died later from famine and disease. 2. No one died and no one was taken captive. 3. Several people died or were taken captive.

1