Dam Good Luck: From the beginning, Las Vegas was built to serve travelers. The railroad needed a way station, and Las Vegas was the place. Growth continued for ten years, and by 1915 the town had telephones, round-the-clock electricity, and a growing populationmany of whom worked in the railroad repair shop. But such heady progress would soon come to a halt. The growing competition in rail transport resulted in Union Pacific buying the Los AngelesSalt Lake line. Union Pacific then consolidated its operations, eliminating the Las Vegas repair facility. Additionally, Las Vegas had been made a part of Nevada's new Clark County in 1909, a year when the legislature also outlawed gambling. These unfortunate circumstances threatened to relegate Las Vegas to the status of a small desert community that could no longer support its 3000 residents. But the southwest's growing need for water, combined with Las Vegas's fortuitous proximity to the Colorado River, would give Las Vegas a second chance to achieve prosperity. Construction on Hoover Dam (originally Boulder Dam, subsequently renamed for the president who authorized the project) began in 1931 in a canyon 45 miles (72 km) southeast of Las Vegas. Providing an influx of $165 million to the southwestern economy, Hoover Dam played a major role in preventing Las Vegas from drying up, both financially and literally. Not only did it create jobs, but it also created Lake Mead, the massive reservoir that today provides water to all of southern Nevada. More Government Help: The construction of Hoover Dam did not single-handedly save Las Vegas, however. The state legislature helped as well, by legalizing gambling in 1931 and thus solidifying the future of the town, though legislators and residents could never have known this at the time. The hordes of people who attended Hoover Dam's 1935 dedication set the city's now-formidable public relations machine into action. They went to work on what has become one of the lengthiest citywide tourism campaigns ever attempted. It didn't take long for the city to establish itself as a wild-West town with an "anything goes" attitude. Vices outlawed or heavily controlled elsewhere were legal here, available any hour of any day (or night).

Question: "What man-made construction ended up creating jobs and also creating Lake Mead?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "Boulder Dam"

Response: yes

Sometimes traits can vary from parent to offspring. These changes are due to mutations. Mutations are a random change. Mutations are natural. Some mutations are harmful. In this case, the organism may not live to reproduce. The trait will not be passed onto offspring. Others variations in traits have no effect on survival. Can some mutations be good for a living thing? Other mutations can have great benefits. Imagine being the first moth that can blend into its background. It would have a better chance of survival. A living thing that survives is likely to have offspring. If it does, it may pass the new trait on to its offspring. Thats good news for the offspring. The offspring may be more likely to survive. Mutations are one way living things adapt to new conditions.

Question: "Are mutations harmful or natural?"

Response: "They can be both"
OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

A: yes

Problem: After becoming disabled in a machete attack on a visit to his native Haiti, Jean-Claude Joseph needed help persuading his landlord to move him from a fifth-floor apartment to one on the ground floor. Isaac Benjamin became ensnared in a bureaucratic snafu that took away his Social Security disability payments for more than two years. The story of Martha, a woman from Sierra Leone, was more compelling. Beaten, raped and tortured in her politically repressive homeland, she knowingly used someone else's passport to escape to America, but was caught by immigration authorities upon her arrival. She desperately sought political asylum. Not the kind of cases that lead to ground-breaking upheavals in the law, but the kind of cases that are handled day in and day out by lawyers for the legally disenfranchised who have no where else to turn. The work of attorneys from Legal Services of New Jersey will be highlighted in a onehour documentary, "Quest for Justice," to be aired 9 p.m. today on New Jersey Network. Produced by NYD2, a communications firm based in Somerset, the documentary features case histories of clients whose needs ranged from housing to fighting off deportation. Joseph, a 54-year-old naturalized citizen, turned to Legal Services when the landlord of his federally subsidized apartment complex in Elizabeth turned a deaf ear to his request for a ground-floor apartment. Having lost the use of his left arm in warding off the machete attack during a robbery attempt, Joseph said he found it increasingly difficult to negotiate the five flights of stairs lugging groceries or laundry on the frequent occasions when the building's elevator was out of order. "With this, it became impossible for me to stay upstairs," he said, pointing to the scars on his forearm. "If I cannot carry my groceries or my laundry, how can I live?" "It was a compelling case," said Legal Services attorney Stephen St. Hilaire. "The key for us -- and we have to make tough decisions all the time on whether to take a case -- was visualizing what he had to do to get to the fifth floor, struggling with a bag of groceries," he said. Benjamin, 53, of Jersey City had been collecting Social Security disability after undergoing double bypass surgery when the checks stopped coming. He said the agency claimed he had failed to return a form updating the condition of his health. "But what got me was they didn't let me know they didn't get it, they just cut me off," he said, adding he found it impossible to negotiate the Social Security bureaucracy himself.

Question: "Why did Martha come to America?"

Answer: "Seek asylum"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
Answer: yes

This is the story of a young girl and her dog. The young girl and her dog set out a trip into the woods one day. Upon entering the woods the girl and her dog found that the woods were dark and cold. The girl was a little scared and was thinking of turning back, but yet they went on. The girl's dog was acting very interested in what was in the bushes up ahead. To both the girl and the dog's surprise, there was a small brown bear resting in the bushes. The bear was not surprised and did not seem at all interested in the girl and her dog. The bear looked up at the girl and it was almost as if he was smiling at her. He then rested his head on his bear paws and went back to sleep. The girl and the dog kept walking and finally made it out of the woods. To this day the girl does not know why the bear was so friendly and to this day she has never told anyone about the meeting with the bear in the woods.

Question: "What were the girl and her dog doing when they were surprised?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "Chasing bears"

Response:
no