praj-17/QA-MCQ-Open-ended huggingface dataset:
Title: Near_East
Context: This view reveals a somewhat less than altruistic Christian intent of the British Empire; however, it was paradoxical from the beginning, as Simpson and most other writers pointed out. The Ottomans were portrayed as the slavers, but even as the American and British fleets were striking at the Barbary pirates on behalf of freedom, their countries were promulgating a vigorous African slave trade of their own. Charles George Gordon is known as the saint of all British colonial officers. A dedicated Christian, he spent his time between assignments living among the poor and donating his salary on their behalf. He won Ottoman confidence as a junior officer in the Crimean War. In his later career he became a high official in the Ottoman Empire, working as Governor of Egypt for the Ottoman khedive for the purpose of conducting campaigns against slavers and slavery in Egypt and the Sudan.

question: The Ottomans were portrayed as what? 

answer: the slavers

question: Who is known as the saint of all British colonial officers? 

answer: Charles George Gordon

question: What did Charles George Gordon spend his time between? 

answer: assignments living among the poor and donating his salary

question: When did he win Ottoman confidence? 

answer: as a junior officer in the Crimean War

question: What did he become in his later career? 

answer: a high official in the Ottoman Empire
Title: Near_East
Context: The term "Near and Middle East," held the stage for a few years before World War I. It proved to be less acceptable to a colonial point of view that saw the entire region as one. In 1916 Captain T.C. Fowle, 40th Pathans (troops of British India), wrote of a trip he had taken from Karachi to Syria just before the war. The book does not contain a single instance of "Near East." Instead, the entire region is considered "the Middle East." The formerly Near Eastern sections of his trip are now "Turkish" and not Ottoman.

question: When did the term "Near and Middle East" hold stage? 

answer: a few years before World War I

question: What proved to be less acceptable to a colonial point of view? 

answer: The term "Near and Middle East,"

question: When did Captain T.C. Fowle write of a trip he had taken from Karachi to Syria? 

answer: 1916

question: Who were the 40th Pathans? 

answer: (troops of British India

question: In the book Fowle wrote, what is the entire region considered? 

answer: "the Middle East.
Title: Near_East
Context: Subsequently with the disgrace of "Near East" in diplomatic and military circles, "Middle East" prevailed. However, "Near East" continues in some circles at the discretion of the defining agency or academic department. They are not generally considered distinct regions as they were at their original definition.

question: What prevailed with the disgrace of "Near East"? 

answer: "Middle East"

question: What continues in some circles at the discretion of the defining agency or academic department? 

answer: Near East

question: What term was disgraced in diplomatic and military circles? 

answer: Near East
Title: Near_East
Context: Although racial and colonial definitions of the Middle East are no longer considered ideologically sound, the sentiment of unity persists. For much, but by no means all, of the Middle East, the predominance of Islam lends some unity, as does the transient accident of geographical continuity. Otherwise there is but little basis except for history and convention to lump together peoples of multiple, often unrelated languages, governments, loyalties and customs.

question: What sentiment persists even though racial and colonial definitions of the Middle East are no longer ideologically sound? 

answer: sentiment of unity

question: What definitions of the Middle East are no longer ideologically sound? 

answer: racial and colonial definitions

question: What are racial and colonial definitions of the Middle East considered? 

answer: no longer considered ideologically sound
Title: Near_East
Context: In the 20th century after decades of intense warfare and political turmoil terms such as "Near East", "Far East" and "Middle East" were relegated to the experts, especially in the new field of political science. The new wave of diplomats often came from those programs. Archaeology on the international scene, although very much of intellectual interest to the major universities, fell into the shadow of international relations. Their domain became the Ancient Near East, which could no longer be relied upon to be the Near East. The Ottoman Empire was gone, along with all the other empires of the 19th century, replaced with independent republics. Someone had to reconcile the present with the past. This duty was inherited by various specialized agencies that were formed to handle specific aspects of international relations, now so complex as to be beyond the scope and abilities of a diplomatic corps in the former sense. The ancient Near East is frozen in time. The living Near East is primarily what the agencies say it is. In most cases this single term is inadequate to describe the geographical range of their operations. The result is multiple definitions.

question: When were terms such as "Near East", "Far East", and "Middle East" relegated to the experts? 

answer: the 20th century

question: Where did the new wave of diplomats often come from? 

answer: the new field of political science

question: Where did archaeology on the international scene fall into? 

answer: the shadow of international relations

question: What replaced the fallen empires of the 19th century? 

answer: independent republics
Title: Near_East
Context: The United States is the chief remaining nation to assign official responsibilities to a region called the Near East. Within the government the State Department has been most influential in promulgating the Near Eastern regional system. The countries of the former empires of the 19th century have in general abandoned the term and the subdivision in favor of Middle East, North Africa and various forms of Asia. In many cases, such as France, no distinct regional substructures have been employed. Each country has its own French diplomatic apparatus, although regional terms, including Proche-Orient and Moyen-Orient, may be used in a descriptive sense. The most influential agencies in the United States still using Near East as a working concept are as follows.

question: What is the chief remaining nation to assign official responsibilities to a region called the Near East? 

answer: The United States

question: What has the state department been most influential in promulgating? 

answer: the Near Eastern regional system

question: Who has abandoned the term Near East? 

answer: The countries of the former empires of the 19th century
Title: Near_East
Context: The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, a division of the United States Department of State, is perhaps the most influential agency to still use the term Near East. Under the Secretary of State, it implements the official diplomacy of the United States, called also statecraft by Secretary Clinton. The name of the bureau is traditional and historic. There is, however, no distinct Middle East. All official Middle Eastern affairs are referred to this bureau.

question: The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs is a division of what? 

answer: the United States Department of State

question: What is perhaps the most influential agency to still use the term Near East? 

answer: The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs

question: Secretary Clinton also calls the implementation of official diplomacy of the United States what? 

answer: statecraft
Title: Near_East
Context: Working closely in conjunction with the definition of the Near East provided by the State Department is the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA), an educational institution of the United States Department of Defense. It teaches courses and holds seminars and workshops for government officials and military officers who will work or are working within its region. As the name indicates, that region is a combination of State Department regions; however, NESA is careful to identify the State Department region. As its Near East is not different from the State Department's it does not appear in the table. Its name, however, is not entirely accurate. For example, its region includes Mauritania, a member of the State Department's Africa (Sub-Sahara).

question: Who works closely with the definition of the Near East? 

answer: the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA)

question: What is NESA? 

answer: an educational institution of the United States Department of Defense

question: What does NESA Teach? 

answer: It teaches courses and holds seminars and workshops
Title: Near_East
Context: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) is a non-profit organization for research and advice on Middle Eastern policy. It regards its target countries as the Middle East but adopts the convention of calling them the Near East to be in conformance with the practices of the State Department. Its views are independent. The WINEP bundles the countries of Northwest Africa together under "North Africa." Details can be found in Policy Focus #65.

question: What is WINEP? 

answer: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

question: What is WINEPS target countries as? 

answer: the Middle East

question: How does WINEP bundle the countries of Northwest Africa? 

answer: under "North Africa."
Title: Near_East
Context: The Library of Congress (LoC) is an institution established by Congress to provide a research library for the government of the United States and serve as a national library. It is under the supervision of the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Library and the Librarian of Congress. The Near East is a separate topic and subdivision of the African and Middle Eastern division. The Middle East contains a Hebraic section consisting of only Israel for a country, but including eleven modern and ancient languages relating to Judaism, such as Yiddish, a European pidgin language. The Near East is otherwise nearly identical to the Middle East, except that it extends partly into Central Asia and the Caucasus, regions that the State Department considers to be in Asia.

question: What does LoC stand for? 

answer: The Library of Congress

question: What is the Library of Congress? 

answer: an institution established by Congress to provide a research library for the government

question: The Library of Congress is under whose supervision? 

answer: the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Library
Title: Near_East
Context: The United Nations formulates multiple regional divisions as is convenient for its various operations. But few of them include a Near East, and that poorly defined. UNICEF recognizes the "Middle East and North Africa" region, where the Middle East is bounded by the Red Sea on the west and includes Iran on the east. UNESCO recognizes neither a Near East nor a Middle East, dividing the countries instead among three regions: Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa. Its division "does not forcibly reflect geography" but "refers to the execution of regional activities." The United Nations Statistics Division defines Western Asia to contain the countries included elsewhere in the Middle East. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) describes its entire theatre of operations as the Near East, but then assigns many of its members to other regions as well; for example, Cyprus, Malta and Turkey are in both the European and the Near Eastern regions. Its total area extends further into Central Asia than that of most agencies.

question: Who formulates multiple regional divisions as is convenient for its various operations? 

answer: The United Nations

question: Who recognizes the "Middle East and North Africa" region? 

answer: UNICEF

question: The United Nations Statistics Division defines Western Asia to contain what? 

answer: the countries included elsewhere in the Middle East

question: The Food and Agriculture Organization describes its entire theater of operations as what? 

answer: the Near East
Title: Near_East
Context: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a quasi-independent agency of the United States Government. It appears to have multiple leadership. On the one hand its director is appointed by the president. It plays a significant role in providing the president with intelligence. On the other hand, Congress oversees its operations through a committee. The CIA was first formed under the National Security Act of 1947 from the army's Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which furnished both military intelligence and clandestine military operations to the army during the crisis of World War II. Many revisions and redefinitions have taken place since then. Although the name of the CIA reflects the original advised intent of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, the government's needs for strategic services have frustrated that intent from the beginning. The press received by the agency in countless articles, novels and other media have tended to create various popular myths; for example, that this agency replaced any intelligence effort other than that of the OSS, or that it contains the central intelligence capability of the United States. Strategic services are officially provided by some 17 agencies called the Intelligence Community. Army intelligence did not come to an end; in fact, all the branches of the Armed Forces retained their intelligence services. This community is currently under the leadership (in addition to all its other leadership) of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

question: What is a quasi-independent agency of the United States Government? 

answer: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

question: The CIA appears to have what? 

answer: multiple leadership

question: Who appoints the director of the CIA? 

answer: the president

question: Who oversees the operations of the CIA? 

answer: Congress
Title: Near_East
Context: Under these complex circumstances regional names are less useful. They are more historical than an accurate gauge of operations. The Directorate of Intelligence, one of four directorates into which the CIA is divided, includes the Office of Near Eastern and South Asian Analysis (NESA). Its duties are defined as "support on Middle Eastern and North African countries, as well as on the South Asian nations of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan." The total range of countries is in fact the same as the State Department's Near East, but the names do not correspond. The Near East of the NESA is the same as the Middle East defined in the CIA-published on-line resource, The World Factbook. Its list of countries is limited by the Red Sea, comprises the entire eastern coast of the Mediterranean, including Israel, Turkey, the small nations of the Caucasus, Iran and the states of the Arabian Peninsula.

question: The Near East of the NESA is the same as the Middle East define in what? 

answer: The World Factbook

question: What does NESA stand for? 

answer: Near Eastern and South Asian Analysis

question: Whose duties are defined as "support on Middle Eastern and North African countries?" 

answer: (NESA)
Title: Near_East
Context: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an independent agency under the Department of State established in place of the Marshall Plan for the purpose of determining and distributing foreign aid, does not use the term Near East. Its definition of Middle East corresponds to that of the State Department, which officially prefers the term Near East.

question: What does USAID stand for? 

answer: U.S. Agency for International Development

question: What is the independant agency under the Department of State for the purpose of determining and distributing foreign aid called? 

answer: USAID

question: What term does USAID not use? 

answer: the term Near East
Title: Near_East
Context: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office of United Kingdom recognises a Middle East and North Africa region, but not a Near East. Their original Middle East consumed the Near East as far as the Red Sea, ceded India to the Asia and Oceania region, and went into partnership with North Africa as far as the Atlantic.

question: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office of United Kingdom recognizes what? 

answer: a Middle East and North Africa region

question: What region does the Foreign and Commonwealth office of United Kingdom not recognize? 

answer: Near East

question: What consumed the Near East as far as the Red Sea? 

answer: Their original Middle East
Title: Near_East
Context: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Greece conducts "bilateral relationships" with the countries of the "Mediterranean – Middle East Region" but has formulated no Near East Region. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey also does not use the term Near East. Its regions include the Middle East, the Balkans and others.

question: What does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Greece conduct? 

answer: "bilateral relationships"

question: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey does not use what term? 

answer: Near East

question: The Middle East, the Balkans and others are included in what republic? 

answer: Republic of Turkey
Title: Near_East
Context: The Ancient Near East is a term of the 20th century intended to stabilize the geographical application of Near East to ancient history.[citation needed] The Near East may acquire varying meanings, but the Ancient Near East always has the same meaning: the ancient nations, people and languages of the enhanced Fertile Crescent, a sweep of land from the Nile Valley through Anatolia and southward to the limits of Mesopotamia.

question: What is a term of the 20th centrury intended to stabilize the geographical application of Near East to ancient history? 

answer: The Ancient Near East

question: The ancient nations, people and languages of the enhanced Fertile Crescent will always refer to what? 

answer: the Ancient Near East

question: What is the sweep of land from the Nile Valley through Anatolia called? 

answer: Fertile Crescent
Title: Near_East
Context: Resorting to this verbal device, however, did not protect the "Ancient Near East" from the inroads of "the Middle East." For example, a high point in the use of "Ancient Near East" was for Biblical scholars the Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament by James Bennett Pritchard, a textbook of first edition dated 1950. The last great book written by Leonard Woolley, British archaeologist, excavator of ancient Ur and associate of T.E. Lawrence and Arthur Evans, was The Art of the Middle East, Including Persia, Mesopotamia and Palestine, published in 1961. Woolley had completed it in 1960 two weeks before his death. The geographical ranges in each case are identical.

question: James Bennett Pritchard wrote what? 

answer: Texts relating to the Old Testament

question: When did James Bennett Pritchard write his textbook? 

answer: 1950

question: Who was a British archaeologist? 

answer: Leonard Woolley

question: Who excavated ancient Ur? 

answer: Leonard Woolley
Title: Near_East
Context: Parallel with the growth of specialized agencies for conducting or supporting statescraft in the second half of the 20th century has been the collection of resources for scholarship and research typically in university settings. Most universities teaching the liberal arts have library and museum collections. These are not new; however, the erection of these into "centres" of national and international interest in the second half of the 20th century have created larger databases not available to the scholars of the past. Many of these focus on the Ancient Near East or Near East in the sense of Ancient Near East.

question: What do most universities teaching liberal arts have?  

answer: library and museum collections

question: What has had parallel growth of in the 20th century? 

answer: the collection of resources

question: What are these resources collected for? 

answer: for scholarship and research
Title: Near_East
Context: One such institution is the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents (CSAD) founded by and located centrally at Oxford University, Great Britain. Among its many activities CSAD numbers "a long-term project to create a library of digitised images of Greek inscriptions." These it arranges by region. The Egypt and the Near East region besides Egypt includes Cyprus, Persia and Afghanistan but not Asia Minor (a separate region).

question: What does CSAD stand for? 

answer: Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents

question: Who founded the CSAD? 

answer: Oxford University

question: Where is Oxford University? 

answer: Great Britain
Title: Near_East
Context: A large percentage of experts on the modern Middle East began their training in university departments named for the Near East. Similarly the journals associated with these fields of expertise include the words Near East or Near Eastern. The meaning of Near East in these numerous establishments and publications is Middle East. Expertise on the modern Middle East is almost never mixed or confused with studies of the Ancient Near East, although often "Ancient Near East" is abbreviated to "Near East" without any implication of modern times. For example, "Near Eastern Languages" in the ancient sense includes such languages as Sumerian and Akkadian. In the modern sense, it is likely to mean any or all of the Arabic languages.

question: Where did a large percentage of experts on the modern Middle East began their training? 

answer: university departments named for the Near East

question: What is the meaning of Near East in numerous establishments and publications? 

answer: Middle East

question: What is almost never mixed or confused with studies of the Ancient Near East? 

answer: Expertise on the modern Middle East

question: What includes such languages as Sumerian and Akkadian? 

answer: Near Eastern Languages
Title: Zhejiang
Context:  Zhejiang (help·info), formerly romanized as Chekiang, is an eastern coastal province of China. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiangsu province and Shanghai municipality to the north, Anhui province to the northwest, Jiangxi province to the west, and Fujian province to the south; to the east is the East China Sea, beyond which lie the Ryukyu Islands of Japan.

question: What was Zhejiang formerly romanized as? 

answer: Chekiang

question: Which province is Zhejiang bordered by to the northwest? 

answer: Anhui

question: Which province is Zhejiang bordered by to the west? 

answer: Jiangxi

question: Which province is Zhejiang bordered by to the south? 

answer: Fujian

question: Which body of water is to the east of Zhejiang? 

answer: East China Sea
Title: Zhejiang
Context: The province's name derives from the Zhe River (浙江, Zhè Jiāng), the former name of the Qiantang River which flows past Hangzhou and whose mouth forms Hangzhou Bay. It is usually glossed as meaning "Crooked" or "Bent River", from the meaning of Chinese 折, but is more likely a phono-semantic compound formed from adding 氵 (the "water" radical used for river names) to phonetic 折 (pinyin zhé but reconstructed Old Chinese *tet), preserving a proto-Wu name of the local Yue, similar to Yuhang, Kuaiji, and Jiang.

question: What is the former name of the Qiantang River? 

answer: Zhe River

question: What does the mouth of the Qiantang River form? 

answer: Hangzhou Bay

question: What does Zhe mean in Chinese? 

answer: Crooked

question: Which river does the province of Zhejiang derive its name from? 

answer: Zhe River

question: What does the Qiantang River flow past? 

answer: Hangzhou