TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you're given a question, along with a context passage. The passage will not have a direct answer to the question, but can include some information and a clue for the answer. Assuming you can only obtain information about one entity in the passage, your job is to determine whether information from the passage can be used to answer the question. Indicate your choice as `a` for Yes or `b` for No.
PROBLEM: Question: How old was the Duke of Saxony when he appointed Adolf I to hold Holstein and Stormarn? Passage:He was appointed to hold as fiefs Holstein and Stormarn, including Hamburg, by Lothair, Duke of Saxony, in 1111. By this appointment Adolf became the leader of the defence of Germany against the Wagri. Allied with Henry, the prince of the Obotrites, he repeatedly waged war on Wagria and the Rugians. After Henry's death (1127), Adolf remained allied with his sons Canute and Sventepolk, but they were soon dead and Lothair, by then King of Germany, had made Canute Lavard, a Danish prince, Duke of Schleswig. Feeling his authority threatened by the Danish upstart, Adolf attacked his castle of Albergs, captured the garrison, and destroyed its defences. He left his counties intact to his second son, Adolf II, since his eldest, Hartung, had been killed in the Second Battle of Chlumec in 1126.


SOLUTION: a

PROBLEM: Question: Where was the founder of the Quakers born? Passage:The design of the meeting house is unusual, having swayed away from the designs of traditional Quaker meeting houses. It was a result of the reunification of the two groups of Quakers that had initially separated from a schism in 1827, where two thirds of Quakers abandoned the philosophies of their founder, George Fox, and instead turned to the ideals taught by Long Island preacher, Elias Hicks. By 1926, when it was time to construct a new meeting house in Poughkeepsie, the number of local “Hicksite” Quakers was diminishing, so many had joined the Orthodox Quakers. Alfred Bussel, a New York City architect, was chosen to design a meeting house that appealed to all members. Since he had studied at Haverford College, a Quaker school, Bussell was very familiar with the Society of Friends traditions. One branch had suggested a church-like structure with steeple, organ, and stained-glass windows, while the other wanted a more traditional style meeting house, i.e. evoking simplicity, equality, community, and peace. The design therefore was a unity between the two branches, a sign of what was to come with the official reunification in the 1950s. The result is a simple, colonial revival building without stained-glass or any sort of liturgical ornamentation or symbols, as per Quaker tradition, but had a single front door (Quaker meeting houses had separate entrances for men and women) and an interior layout akin to a church; a central aisle with rows of pews on either side all facing the front of the building.


SOLUTION: b

PROBLEM: Question: How long was Yeltsin president? Passage:The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on 7 November 1917 (October Revolution) as a sovereign state and the world's first constitutionally socialist state with the ideology of Communism. The first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922, the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR officially setting up of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The 1977 Soviet Constitution stated that "[a] Union Republic is a sovereign [...] state that has united [...] in the Union" and "each Union Republic shall retain the right freely to secede from the USSR". On 12 June 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, established separation of powers (instead of Soviet form of government), established citizenship of Russia and stated that the RSFSR shall retain the right of free secession from the USSR. On 12 June 1991, Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007), supported by the Democratic Russia pro-reform movement, was elected the first and only President of the RSFSR, a post that would later become the presidency of the Russian Federation.


SOLUTION:
b