Premise: The Council document also noted that inexplicably 18-B lawyers are handling 50 percent of the indigent criminal cases in New York City, even though their mandate is to handle only multi-defendant cases where the Legal Aid Society had a conflict.

Hypothesis: 18-B lawyers are handling cases that appear to be outside their mandate.
Answer: yes

Premise: Last week Time magazine reported some preliminary results from a poll it has been conducting on its Internet site about whom it should pick for its Person of the Century.

Hypothesis: Time conducted a poll about its Person of the Century.
Answer: yes

Premise: No, some one's got ahead of us today by an hour or so.

Hypothesis: We're an hour ahead of everyone else.
Answer: no

Premise: One begins with the view that the postal system is a vertically integrated network involving the collection, sorting, transporting, and final delivery of mail.

Hypothesis: The United States economy is the backbone of the postal system.
Answer: it is not possible to tell