praj-17/QA-MCQ-Open-ended huggingface dataset:
Title: Sumer
Context: As is known from the "Sumerian Farmer's Almanac", after the flood season and after the Spring Equinox and the Akitu or New Year Festival, using the canals, farmers would flood their fields and then drain the water. Next they made oxen stomp the ground and kill weeds. They then dragged the fields with pickaxes. After drying, they plowed, harrowed, and raked the ground three times, and pulverized it with a mattock, before planting seed. Unfortunately the high evaporation rate resulted in a gradual increase in the salinity of the fields. By the Ur III period, farmers had switched from wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley as their principal crop.

question: Why did the Sumerian farmers make their oxen stomp the ground? 

answer: kill weeds

question: How do archaeologists know about Sumerian agricultural practices?  

answer: from the "Sumerian Farmer's Almanac"

question: How many times did Sumerian farmers plow, harrow and rake the ground? 

answer: three times

question: When would farmers flood their fields? 

answer: after the Spring Equinox and the Akitu

question: The the Ur III period, what crop had Sumerians switched to from wheat for their primary crop? 

answer: salt-tolerant barley
Title: Sumer
Context: According to Archibald Sayce, the primitive pictograms of the early Sumerian (i.e. Uruk) era suggest that "Stone was scarce, but was already cut into blocks and seals. Brick was the ordinary building material, and with it cities, forts, temples and houses were constructed. The city was provided with towers and stood on an artificial platform; the house also had a tower-like appearance. It was provided with a door which turned on a hinge, and could be opened with a sort of key; the city gate was on a larger scale, and seems to have been double. The foundation stones — or rather bricks — of a house were consecrated by certain objects that were deposited under them."

question: What does Archibald Sayce think early Sumerian pictograms suggest about the availability of stone? 

answer: was scarce

question: How did the Sumerians fashion the stone they cut? 

answer: into blocks and seals

question: What was the ordinary building material of Sumerians? 

answer: Brick

question: What were the foundation stones of Sumerian houses consecrated by? 

answer: objects that were deposited under them

question: What kind of appearance did Sumerian houses have? 

answer: tower-like
Title: Sumer
Context: The most impressive and famous of Sumerian buildings are the ziggurats, large layered platforms which supported temples. Sumerian cylinder seals also depict houses built from reeds not unlike those built by the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq until as recently as 400 CE. The Sumerians also developed the arch, which enabled them to develop a strong type of dome. They built this by constructing and linking several arches. Sumerian temples and palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques,[citation needed] such as buttresses, recesses, half columns, and clay nails.

question: What is the most impressive and famous style of Sumerian buildings? 

answer: the ziggurats

question: Sumerians also built houses from reeds not very different from ones built by inhabitants in Iraq as recently as when? 

answer: 400 CE

question: How did the Sumerians build their strong domes? 

answer: by constructing and linking several arches

question: What development by the Sumerians allowed them to make use of domes? 

answer: the arch

question: Where were the use of advanced materials and techniques on display in Sumer? 

answer: Sumerian temples and palaces
Title: Sumer
Context: The Sumerians developed a complex system of metrology c. 4000 BC. This advanced metrology resulted in the creation of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. From c. 2600 BC onwards, the Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tablets and dealt with geometrical exercises and division problems. The earliest traces of the Babylonian numerals also date back to this period. The period c. 2700 – 2300 BC saw the first appearance of the abacus, and a table of successive columns which delimited the successive orders of magnitude of their sexagesimal number system. The Sumerians were the first to use a place value numeral system. There is also anecdotal evidence the Sumerians may have used a type of slide rule in astronomical calculations. They were the first to find the area of a triangle and the volume of a cube.

question: What did the Sumerians a complex system of around 4000 BC? 

answer: metrology

question: From the Sumerian metrology sprang forth the creation of what disciplines?  

answer: arithmetic, geometry, and algebra

question: Where did the Sumerians put their multiplication tables? 

answer: on clay tablets

question: When was the abacus first seen between? 

answer: 2700 – 2300 BC

question: What were the Sumerians the first to do when it came to mathematics? 

answer: use a place value numeral system
Title: Sumer
Context: Commercial credit and agricultural consumer loans were the main types of loans. The trade credit was usually extended by temples in order to finance trade expeditions and was nominated in silver. The interest rate was set at 1/60 a month (one shekel per mina) some time before 2000 BC and it remained at that level for about two thousand years. Rural loans commonly arose as a result of unpaid obligations due to an institution (such as a temple), in this case the arrears were considered to be lent to the debtor. They were denominated in barley or other crops and the interest rate was typically much higher than for commercial loans and could amount to 1/3 to 1/2 of the loan principal.

question: What were the main types of loans in Sumerian society? 

answer: Commercial credit and agricultural consumer

question: How man shekel per mina was the interest rate for loans? 

answer: one

question: What was trade credit backed by when extended by temples? 

answer: silver

question: For how long was the interest rate of Sumerian loans consistent? 

answer: about two thousand years

question: What typically arose as a result of unpaid obligations? 

answer: Rural loans
Title: Sumer
Context: Periodically "clean slate" decrees were signed by rulers which cancelled all the rural (but not commercial) debt and allowed bondservants to return to their homes. Customarily rulers did it at the beginning of the first full year of their reign, but they could also be proclaimed at times of military conflict or crop failure. The first known ones were made by Enmetena and Urukagina of Lagash in 2400-2350 BC. According to Hudson, the purpose of these decrees was to prevent debts mounting to a degree that they threatened fighting force which could happen if peasants lost the subsistence land or became bondservants due to the inability to repay the debt.

question: What type of debt did "clean slate" decrees cancel? 

answer: rural

question: When did rulers typically proclaim "clean slate" decrees? 

answer: the first full year of their reign

question: Why were the clean slate decrees useful to the rulers of Sumer? 

answer: to prevent debts mounting to a degree that they threatened fighting force

question: What would happen if peasants couldn't repay their debts? 

answer: lost the subsistence land or became bondservants

question: Who made the first known clean slate decrees? 

answer: Enmetena and Urukagina
Title: Sumer
Context: The almost constant wars among the Sumerian city-states for 2000 years helped to develop the military technology and techniques of Sumer to a high level. The first war recorded in any detail was between Lagash and Umma in c. 2525 BC on a stele called the Stele of the Vultures. It shows the king of Lagash leading a Sumerian army consisting mostly of infantry. The infantrymen carried spears, wore copper helmets, and carried rectangular shields. The spearmen are shown arranged in what resembles the phalanx formation, which requires training and discipline; this implies that the Sumerians may have made use of professional soldiers.

question: What contributed to developing military technology for Sumer? 

answer: almost constant wars

question: How many years were the Sumerian city-states at war? 

answer: 2000 years

question: Who was the first war between in 2525 BC? 

answer: Lagash and Umma

question: What did the king of Lagash's army mostly consist of? 

answer: infantry

question: What shape were the shields of the infantry of Lagash? 

answer: rectangular
Title: Sumer
Context: Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared in the mid 4th millennium BC, near-simultaneously in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and Central Europe. The wheel initially took the form of the potter's wheel. The new concept quickly led to wheeled vehicles and mill wheels. The Sumerians' cuneiform writing system is the oldest (or second oldest after the Egyptian hieroglyphs) which has been deciphered (the status of even older inscriptions such as the Jiahu symbols and Tartaria tablets is controversial). The Sumerians were among the first astronomers, mapping the stars into sets of constellations, many of which survived in the zodiac and were also recognized by the ancient Greeks. They were also aware of the five planets that are easily visible to the naked eye.

question: When did evidence of wheeled vehicles appear throughout the world? 

answer: mid 4th millennium BC

question: What form did wheels initially take? 

answer: potter's wheel

question: The writing system of the Sumerian's is the second oldest to have what done to it? 

answer: been deciphered

question: What did the Sumerians map stars into? 

answer: sets of constellations

question: How many planets were the Sumerians aware of? 

answer: five
Title: Sumer
Context: They invented and developed arithmetic by using several different number systems including a mixed radix system with an alternating base 10 and base 6. This sexagesimal system became the standard number system in Sumer and Babylonia. They may have invented military formations and introduced the basic divisions between infantry, cavalry, and archers. They developed the first known codified legal and administrative systems, complete with courts, jails, and government records. The first true city-states arose in Sumer, roughly contemporaneously with similar entities in what are now Syria and Lebanon. Several centuries after the invention of cuneiform, the use of writing expanded beyond debt/payment certificates and inventory lists to be applied for the first time, about 2600 BC, to messages and mail delivery, history, legend, mathematics, astronomical records, and other pursuits. Conjointly with the spread of writing, the first formal schools were established, usually under the auspices of a city-state's primary temple.

question: Sumerians used number systems which included what alternating bases? 

answer: base 10 and base 6

question: What type of number system was standard in Sumer and Babylonia? 

answer: sexagesimal

question: What type of formations is it possible Sumerians invented? 

answer: military

question: What systems did the Sumerians develop which remain the first known these types to this day? 

answer: legal and administrative

question: In Sumerian society, who oversaw the operation of the first formal schools? 

answer: a city-state's primary temple
Title: Tuvalu
Context: Tuvalu (i/tuːˈvɑːluː/ too-VAH-loo or /ˈtuːvəluː/ TOO-və-loo), formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. It comprises three reef islands and six true atolls spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. Tuvalu has a population of 10,640 (2012 census). The total land area of the islands of Tuvalu is 26 square kilometres (10 sq mi).

question: What is the previous name of Tuvalu? 

answer: Ellice Islands

question: In which ocean is Tuvalu found? 

answer: Pacific Ocean

question: Between what land areas is Tuvalu located? 

answer: Hawaii and Australia

question: According the the 2012 census, how many people live on the Tuvalu islands? 

answer: 10,640

question: What originally formed the Tuvalu islands? 

answer: reef
Title: Tuvalu
Context: In 1568, Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to sail through the archipelago, sighting the island of Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellice's Island; the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. The islands came under Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century, when each of the Ellice Islands was declared a British Protectorate by Captain Gibson of HMS Curacoa between 9 and 16 October 1892. The Ellice Islands were administered as British protectorate by a Resident Commissioner from 1892 to 1916 as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT), and then as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony from 1916 to 1974.

question: In what year was Tuvalu discovered by a European? 

answer: 1568

question: Who was the discoverer of Tuvalu? 

answer: Álvaro de Mendaña

question: What land mass was de Mendana actually seeking? 

answer: Terra Australis

question: What was Tuvalu named in 1819? 

answer: Ellice Islands

question: By what means did the British govern Tuvalu? 

answer: British protectorate
Title: Tuvalu
Context: The origins of the people of Tuvalu are addressed in the theories regarding migration into the Pacific that began about 3000 years ago. During pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the nearer islands including Samoa and Tonga. Eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited; thus the name, Tuvalu, means "eight standing together" in Tuvaluan (compare to *walo meaning "eight" in Proto-Austronesian). Possible evidence of fire in the Caves of Nanumanga may indicate human occupation for thousands of years.

question: How many years ago did migrations of people happen in the Pacific area? 

answer: 3000 years

question: By what means did locale people travel between Pacific islands? 

answer: canoe

question: How many islands are in the Tuvalu group? 

answer: nine islands

question: On how many of Tuvalu's islands did people live? 

answer: Eight

question: What is the native language meaning of Tuvalu? 

answer: eight standing together
Title: Tuvalu
Context: An important creation myth of the islands of Tuvalu is the story of the te Pusi mo te Ali (the Eel and the Flounder) who created the islands of Tuvalu; te Ali (the flounder) is believed to be the origin of the flat atolls of Tuvalu and the te Pusin (the Eel) is the model for the coconut palms that are important in the lives of Tuvaluans. The stories as to the ancestors of the Tuvaluans vary from island to island. On Niutao, Funafuti and Vaitupu the founding ancestor is described as being from Samoa; whereas on Nanumea the founding ancestor is described as being from Tonga.

question: What is the creation myth of Tuvalu? 

answer: te Pusi mo te Ali

question: What does the flounder of the Tuvalu myth represent? 

answer: flat atolls

question: What does the eel of the Tuvalu creation myth represent? 

answer: coconut palms

question: From what land did the people of Niutao believe they came? 

answer: Samoa

question: From where did the people of the island of Nanumea think they came? 

answer: Tonga
Title: Tuvalu
Context: Captain John Byron passed through the islands of Tuvalu in 1764 during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of the Dolphin (1751). Byron charted the atolls as Lagoon Islands. Keith S. Chambers and Doug Munro (1980) identified Niutao as the island that Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa sailed past on 5 May 1781, thus solving what Europeans had called The Mystery of Gran Cocal. Mourelle's map and journal named the island El Gran Cocal ('The Great Coconut Plantation'); however, the latitude and longitude was uncertain. Longitude could only be reckoned crudely as accurate chronometers were unavailable until the late 18th century.

question: What explorer traveled through the Tuvalu islands in 1764? 

answer: Captain John Byron

question: What was Captain Byron doing when he visited Tuvalu? 

answer: circumnavigation of the globe

question: Which island of Tuvalu was identified as the one that Mourelle sailed past in 1781? 

answer: Niutao

question: How did Byron name the Tuvalu islands? 

answer: Lagoon Islands

question: When were chronometers available for accurate location charting?  

answer: late 18th
Title: Tuvalu
Context: The next European to visit was Arent Schuyler de Peyster, of New York, captain of the armed brigantine or privateer Rebecca, sailing under British colours, which passed through the southern Tuvaluan waters in May 1819; de Peyster sighted Nukufetau and Funafuti, which he named Ellice's Island after an English Politician, Edward Ellice, the Member of Parliament for Coventry and the owner of the Rebecca's cargo. The name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay.

question: When did Arent Schuyler de Peyster visit Tuvalu? 

answer: May 1819

question: Which of the Tuvalu isalnds did de Peyster see? 

answer: Nukufetau and Funafuti

question: What name did de Peyster give the Tuvalu islands? 

answer: Ellice's Island

question: For whom did de Peyster name Ellice's Island? 

answer: Edward Ellice

question: After Findlay's charting how many islands of the group were named Ellice? 

answer: all nine islands
Title: Tuvalu
Context: For less than a year between 1862–63, Peruvian ships, engaged in what became to be called the "blackbirding" trade, combed the smaller islands of Polynesia from Easter Island in the eastern Pacific to Tuvalu and the southern atolls of the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati), seeking recruits to fill the extreme labour shortage in Peru. While some islanders were voluntary recruits the "blackbirders" were notorious for enticing islanders on to ships with tricks, such as pretending to be Christian missionaries, as well as kidnapping islanders at gun point. The Rev. A. W. Murray, the earliest European missionary in Tuvalu, reported that in 1863 about 170 people were taken from Funafuti and about 250 were taken from Nukulaelae, as there were fewer than 100 of the 300 recorded in 1861 as living on Nukulaelae.

question: In what years did Peruvian ships seek laborers in the Polynesian islands? 

answer: 1862–63

question: What was the name applied to the trade of dealing with labor hunters? 

answer: blackbirding

question: Who was the earliest missionary to Tuvalu? 

answer: Rev. A. W. Murray

question: By what means did Blackbirders often get islanders aboard their ships? 

answer: tricks

question: When did Murray report people missing because of Blackbirders? 

answer: 1863
Title: Tuvalu
Context: Christianity came to Tuvalu in 1861 when Elekana, a deacon of a Congregational church in Manihiki, Cook Islands became caught in a storm and drifted for 8 weeks before landing at Nukulaelae on 10 May 1861. Elekana began proselytising Christianity. He was trained at Malua Theological College, a London Missionary Society (LMS) school in Samoa, before beginning his work in establishing the Church of Tuvalu. In 1865 the Rev. A. W. Murray of the LMS – a Protestant congregationalist missionary society – arrived as the first European missionary where he too proselytised among the inhabitants of Tuvalu. By 1878 Protestantism was well established with preachers on each island. In the later 19th and early 20th centuries the ministers of what became the Church of Tuvalu (Te Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu) were predominantly Samoans, who influenced the development of the Tuvaluan language and the music of Tuvalu.

question: When did Christianity arrive in Tuvalu? 

answer: 1861

question: What church deacon was washed ashore on Nukulaelae? 

answer: Elekana

question: What missionary was the first European missionary to come to Tuvalu? 

answer: Rev. A. W. Murray

question: Of what nationality were most of the ministers of the Church of Tuvalu? 

answer: Samoans
Title: Tuvalu
Context: Trading companies became active in Tuvalu in the mid-19th century; the trading companies engaged palagi traders who lived on the islands. John (also known as Jack) O'Brien was the first European to settle in Tuvalu, he became a trader on Funafuti in the 1850s. He married Salai, the daughter of the paramount chief of Funafuti. Louis Becke, who later found success as a writer, was a trader on Nanumanga from April 1880 until the trading-station was destroyed later that year in a cyclone. He then became a trader on Nukufetau.

question: In what century did trading companies arrive in Tuvalu? 

answer: mid-19th

question: What type of traders did the trading companies employ on Tuvalu? 

answer: palagi traders

question: Who was the first European to permanently settle on Tuvalu? 

answer: John (also known as Jack) O'Brien

question: Which native did O'Brien marry? 

answer: Salai

question: What trader turned author established a post on Tuvalu? 

answer: Louis Becke
Title: Tuvalu
Context: In 1892 Captain Davis of the HMS Royalist reported on trading activities and traders on each of the islands visited. Captain Davis identified the following traders in the Ellice Group: Edmund Duffy (Nanumea); Jack Buckland (Niutao); Harry Nitz (Vaitupu); John (also known as Jack) O'Brien (Funafuti); Alfred Restieaux and Emile Fenisot (Nukufetau); and Martin Kleis (Nui). During this time, the greatest number of palagi traders lived on the atolls, acting as agents for the trading companies. Some islands would have competing traders while dryer islands might only have a single trader.

question: What sea captain reported on the Tuvalu trading in 1892? 

answer: Captain Davis

question: What was the name of Davis's ship? 

answer: HMS Royalist

question: What did palagi traders act as for the trading companies? 

answer: agents

question: How many traders did some islands have? 

answer: competing

question: What type of islands in the Tuvalu group have few traders?  

answer: dryer
Title: Tuvalu
Context: In the later 1890s and into first decade of the 20th century, structural changes occurred in the operation of the Pacific trading companies; they moved from a practice of having traders resident on each island to instead becoming a business operation where the supercargo (the cargo manager of a trading ship) would deal directly with the islanders when a ship visited an island. From 1900 the numbers of palagi traders in Tuvalu declined and the last of the palagi traders were Fred Whibley on Niutao, Alfred Restieaux on Nukufetau, and Martin Kleis on Nui. By 1909 there were no more resident palagi traders representing the trading companies, although both Whibley and Restieaux remained in the islands until their deaths.

question: What operational changes caused a decline in the numbers of palagi traders in Tuvalu? 

answer: structural changes

question: What type of traders did the Pacific trading companies cease to use? 

answer: resident

question: How did the trading companies begin to trade with islanders? 

answer: deal directly

question: By what year were there no more palagi traders on Tuvalu? 

answer: 1909

question: What is the term for a ship's cargo manager? 

answer: supercargo