TASK DEFINITION: You are given a background paragraph that describes one or more causal or qualitative relationships such as a relationship in economics or a scientific law and a story that makes use of the concepts or the relationship described in the provided paragraph. You are also given a question about the story that requires an understanding of the relationship described in the background paragraph and the story. You need to come up with an answer to the given question; the answer will be a span from either the question or the story. In order to correctly answer the given question, you need to understand the relationship mentioned in the background paragraph and should be able to use it to understand that in the story. Your answer can not consist of any word that is not mentioned in any of these: the background paragraph, the story, or the question. You can directly copy and paste a span from the story or the question while answering the given question.
PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: A wood-decay fungus is any species of fungus that digests moist wood, causing it to rot. Some species of wood-decay fungi attack dead wood, such as brown rot, and some, such as Armillaria (honey fungus), are parasitic and colonize living trees. Excessive moisture above the fibre saturation point in wood is required for fungal colonization and proliferation.[1] Fungi that not only grow on wood but permeate its fibrous structure and actually cause decay, are called lignicolous fungi. In nature, this process causes the breakdown of complex molecules and leads to the return of nutrients to the soil.[2] Various lignicolous fungi consume wood in various ways; for example, some attack the carbohydrates in wood and some others decay lignin. The rate of decay of wooden materials in various climates can be estimated by empirical models.[3].
Story: Bob is a botanist. His interest is in different kinds of fungi. He went to Brazil last month to study fungi in
the Amazon rain forest. First day he searched for fungi in a location with excessive moisture. Second day he searched for fungi in a location with no moisture. In all his search he found two specimens of fungi. Specimen A is a brown rot fungus, and specimen B is a honey fungus.
Question: Would specimen A fungus live on dead woods or not live on dead woods?

SOLUTION: live on dead woods.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: A lake (from Latin lacus) is a terrain feature (or physical feature), a body of liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the bottom of basin (another type of landform or terrain feature; that is, it is not global) and moves slowly if it moves at all. On Earth, a body of water is considered a lake when it is inland, not part of the ocean, is larger and deeper than a pond, and is fed by a river. The only world other than Earth known to harbor lakes is Titan, Saturn's largest moon, which has lakes of ethane, most likely mixed with methane. It is not known if Titan's lakes are fed by rivers, though Titan's surface is carved by numerous river beds. Natural lakes on Earth are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing or recent glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers. In some parts of the world, there are many lakes because of chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last Ice Age. All lakes are temporary over geologic time scales, as they will slowly fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them.
Story: John wanted to know what makes a lake different from a pond. To that end, he first visited a lake. He labeled that part of the study as case A. Then he visited a pond. He labeled that part of the study as case B. John realized that though both of them were water-bodies, they were very different.
Question: Would case B water-body be deeper or shallower than case A?

SOLUTION: shallower.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: One interesting thing that has been found in plants that are consistently exposed to drought, is their ability to form a sort of "memory". In a study by Tombesi et al., they found plants who had previously been exposed to drought were able to come up with a sort of strategy to minimize water loss and decrease water use. They found that plants who were exposed to drought conditions actually changed they way the regulated their stomates and what they called "hydraulic safety margin" so as to decrease the venerability of the plant. By changing the regulation of stomata and subsequently the transpiration, plants were able to function better in situations where the availability of water decreased.
Story: Austria had two distinct climactic regions. The eastern region was exposed to a wet climate and had thriving vegetation, while the western region was exposed to drought.
Question: Which region had fewer plants with an ability to come up with a sort of strategy to minimize water loss?

SOLUTION:
eastern.