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: Marine pollution is a generic term for the entry into the ocean of potentially hazardous chemicals or particles. The biggest culprits are rivers and with them many agriculture fertilizer chemicals as well as livestock and human waste. The excess of oxygen-depleting chemicals leads to hypoxia and the creation of a dead zone.Marine debris, which is also known as marine litter, describes human-created waste floating in a body of water. Oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the center of gyres and coastlines, frequently washing aground where it is known as beach litter. 
Story: Two rivers, The Minninnippi and The Cedar, flow into the same ocean. The Minninnippi is surrounded almost entirely by farm lands due its location in a flat area of the country that sees regular rainfall. The majority of these farms will have runoff from their crop soil flow into the river. The Cedar is located mostly inside an unpopulated forest. Currently, not much industrialization or settling by humans has happened near The Cedar. 
Question: Is it more or less likely that the ocean water near The Cedar will experience hypoxia?

SOLUTION: less.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Alpine tundra occurs at high enough altitude at any latitude. Portions of montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregions worldwide include alpine tundra. Large regions of alpine tundra occur in the North American Cordillera, the Alps and Pyrenees of Europe, the Himalaya and Karakoram of Asia, the Andes of South America, and the Eastern Rift mountains of Africa.Alpine tundra occupies high-mountain summits, slopes, and ridges above timberline. Aspect plays a role as well; the treeline often occurs at higher elevations on warmer equator-facing slopes. Because the alpine zone is present only on mountains, much of the landscape is rugged and broken, with rocky, snowcapped peaks, cliffs, and talus slopes, but also contains areas of gently rolling to almost flat topography.Averaging over many locations and local microclimates, the treeline rises 75 metres (245 ft) when moving 1 degree south from 70 to 50°N, and 130 metres (430 ft) per degree from 50 to 30°N. Between 30°N and 20°S, the treeline is roughly constant, between 3,500 and 4,000 metres (11,500 and 13,100 ft). 
Story: Pete and Laura were learning about Earth's vegetation. Laura read about savannas and subtropical vegetation, while Pete read about alpine tundras. 
Question: Which person read less about the Pyrenees of Europe?

SOLUTION: Laura.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Wildfire intensity increases during daytime hours. For example, burn rates of smoldering logs are up to five times greater during the day because of lower humidity, increased temperatures, and increased wind speeds. Sunlight warms the ground during the day and causes air currents to travel uphill, and downhill during the night as the land cools. Wildfires are fanned by these winds and often follow the air currents over hills and through valleys. United States wildfire operations revolve around a 24-hour fire day that begins at 10:00 a.m. because of the predictable increase in intensity resulting from the daytime warmth. 
Story: There is currently a wildfire in the city of Milton and another one in the city of Parth. These two cities are on opposite sides of the planet, but both wildfires are nearly identical in terms of scope and intensity. So, when it's daytime in Milton, it's nighttime in Parth. New firefighters in Milton are currently arriving at the scene of the fire as the sun beats down directly above them. They are getting instructions from their boss about what they need to do today and preparing themselves for a long day. 
Question: Are the burn rates in Parth currently higher or lower than in Milton?

SOLUTION:
lower.