TASK DEFINITION: You will be given a summary of a story. You need to create a question that can be answered from the story. You can create a question about characters, events, facts and beliefs, etc. Your question should be specific, try not to use pronouns instead of full names. As the stories are sometimes movie plots, they will contain actor names in parentheses. You should not use those names. Only use character names. Try to ask a question about all parts of the plot, not just the beginning.
PROBLEM: Ann Bishop Mullany lives in Baton Rouge. She is unhappily married to John, a successful lawyer, and has never experienced an orgasm. She is in therapy. Graham Dalton is an old college friend of John. He is now a seeming drifter who, after nine years, returns to live in Baton Rouge. Graham arrives to find Ann, who has no idea that John has invited Graham to stay with them until he finds an apartment. When John arrives home, Graham's demeanor becomes remarkably more guarded, due in large part to John's overt disapproval of Graham's bohemian persona. They also discuss the fact that Graham's college girlfriend, Elizabeth, is also living in Baton Rouge.
John is sleeping with Ann's sister, Cynthia, a free-spirited bartender. He rationalizes it by blaming Ann's frigidity. He frequently leaves his law office mid-day to meet with Cynthia, instructing his secretary to reschedule clients, even when they are already in the lobby waiting to see him. Ann makes an impromptu visit to Graham's apartment, where she notices stacks of camcorder tapes around the television. When pressed, Graham explains that he interviews women about their sexual experiences and fantasies, on videotape. Ann, overcome with shock and confusion, leaves his apartment.
Within a day, Cynthia appears at Graham's apartment and introduces herself. Cynthia presses Graham to explain what "spooked" Ann the preceding day. Graham explains the videotapes, and admits to Cynthia his sexual dysfunction: that he is impotent when in the presence of another person, and that he achieves gratification by watching these videos in private. Graham propositions Cynthia to make a tape, assuring her that no other person is allowed to see the tapes. She believes him, and agrees. Cynthia reports back to Ann, who is horrified. Cynthia also tells John, who also reacts very negatively (though more than a little possessively).
Ann and especially John are both reactionary in their condemnation of Graham, who in one conversation reacts with perhaps the defining line of the film: "I look at you, and John, and Cynthia, and I feel... comparatively healthy". When Ann discovers Cynthia's pearl earring in her bedroom (she knows it belongs to her sister since she had mentioned that she had lost it) while vacuuming, she is furious. She heads over to Graham's apartment with the intention of making a videotape. Graham objects, telling her it is something she would not do in a normal frame of mind. She insists and Graham relents.
Afterward, Ann demands a divorce from John. In the ensuing argument, John gleans that Ann has been to Graham's, and that she made a video. He goes to Graham's house, hits him and locks him out of the house, then watches Ann's tape. In it, Ann says she has never felt any kind of 'satisfaction' from sex. After Graham asks if she ever thinks of having sex with other men, she admits she has thought of Graham. Ann later turns the camera on Graham, who resists but she persists. Graham confesses that he is haunted by Elizabeth, and that his motivation in returning to Baton Rouge is an attempt to achieve some closure. He explains that he was a pathological liar, which destroyed an otherwise rewarding relationship with Elizabeth. He explains that he has since gone to great lengths to keep people at a distance and avoid relationships. Ann starts touching and kissing Graham; Graham turns off the camera; it is implied that the two have sex.
A chastened John joins Graham on the front patio and, with obvious pleasure, confesses to having sex with Elizabeth while she and Graham were a couple. But he also helps Graham see Elizabeth in a more realistic way. "She was no saint. She was good in bed and she could keep a secret. That's all I can say about her." and then leaves. This makes Graham furious and he goes into a rage and destroys all of the tapes, as well as his camera.
In the end, John is summoned to his boss's office, where it s implied that he is about to be fired due to his frequent cancellations of meetings with important clients to the firm to have sexual trysts with Cynthia. In the next scene, Ann and Cynthia reconcile at the bar Cynthia tends before Ann returns home and joins Graham on the front porch, as they appear to be a couple.

SOLUTION: What happens to Ann and Cynthia at the end of the story?

PROBLEM: The novel opens with an extended description of the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris' rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevi ve covered with vines, owned by the widow Madame Vauquer. The residents include the law student Eug ne de Rastignac, a mysterious agitator named Vautrin, and an elderly retired vermicelli-maker named Jean-Joachim Goriot. The old man is ridiculed frequently by the other boarders, who soon learn that he has bankrupted himself to support his two well-married daughters.
Rastignac, who moved to Paris from the south of France, becomes attracted to the upper class. He has difficulty fitting in, but is tutored by his cousin, Madame de Beaus ant, in the ways of high society. Rastignac endears himself to one of Goriot's daughters, Delphine, after extracting money from his own already-poor family. Vautrin, meanwhile, tries to convince Rastignac to pursue an unmarried woman named Victorine, whose family fortune is blocked only by her brother. He offers to clear the way for Rastignac by having the brother killed in a duel.
Rastignac refuses to go along with the plot, balking at the idea of having someone killed to acquire their wealth, but he takes note of Vautrin's machinations. This is a lesson in the harsh realities of high society. Before long, the boarders learn that police are seeking Vautrin, revealed to be a master criminal nicknamed Trompe-la-Mort ("Cheater of Death"). Vautrin arranges for a friend to kill Victorine's brother, in the meantime, and is captured by the police.
Goriot, supportive of Rastignac's interest in his daughter and furious with her husband's tyrannical control over her, finds himself unable to help. When his other daughter, Anastasie, informs him that she has been selling off her husband's family jewelry to pay her lover's debts, the old man is overcome with grief at his own impotence and suffers a stroke.
Delphine does not visit Goriot as he lies on his deathbed, and Anastasie arrives too late, only once he has lost consciousness. Before dying, Goriot rages about their disrespect toward him. His funeral is attended only by Rastignac, a servant named Christophe, and two paid mourners. Goriot's daughters, rather than being present at the funeral, send their empty coaches, each bearing their families' respective coat of arms. After the short ceremony, Rastignac turns to face Paris as the lights of evening begin to appear. He sets out to dine with Delphine de Nucingen and declares to the city: " nous deux, maintenant!" ("It's between you and me now!")

SOLUTION: Why does Vautrin offer to kill Victorine's brother?

PROBLEM: In Edwardian London, 1910, Cockney one-man band Bert is entertaining a crowd when he senses a change in the wind. Afterwards, he directly addresses the audience and gives them a tour of Cherry Tree Lane, stopping outside the home of the Banks family. George Banks returns home from his job at the bank to learn from his wife Winifred that their hired nanny, Katie Nanna, has left their service after his children, Jane and Michael, ran away "again". They are returned shortly after by the local constable, who reveals that the children were chasing a lost kite. The children ask their father to help build a better kite, but he dismisses them. Taking it upon himself to hire a nanny, George advertises for a stern, no-nonsense nanny. Instead, Jane and Michael present their own advertisement for a kinder, sweeter nanny, but when George rips up the letter and throws the scraps in the fireplace, the remains of the advertisement magically float up and out into the air.
The next day, a queue of elderly, sour-faced nannies appear outside. However, a strong gust of wind blows the nannies away, and Jane and Michael witness a young nanny descend from the sky using her umbrella. Presenting herself to George, Mary Poppins calmly produces the children s now restored advertisement and agrees with its requests, but promises the astonished banker she will be firm with his children. As George puzzles over the return of the advertisement, Mary is forced to hire herself and meets the children, baffling them with her behavior and bottomless carpet bag. She helps the children to tidy their nursery through song, before heading out for a walk in the park.
Outside, they meet Bert who now works as a screever, drawing chalk sketches on the pavement. Mary uses her magic to transport the group into one of the drawings, which becomes an animated countryside setting. While the children ride on a nearby carousel, Mary Poppins and Bert go on a leisurely stroll and are served tea by a quartet of penguin waiters. Mary enchants the carousel horses and participate in a horse race which she wins. While being asked to describe her victory, Mary announces the nonsense word Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious . However, the outing is ruined when a thunderstorm demolishes Bert's drawings, returning the group back to London. On another outing, the four meet Mary's jovial Uncle Albert who has floated up in the air due to his uncontrollable laughter. They join him for a tea party on the ceiling, telling jokes.
George becomes increasingly annoyed by the cheery atmosphere of his family and threatens to fire Mary Poppins. Instead, Mary inverts his attempt by convincing him to take the children to the bank for a day. George takes Jane and Michael to the bank, where they meet his employers, Mr. Dawes Sr. and his son. Dawes aggressively attempts to have Michael invest his tuppence in the bank, snatching the money from him. Michael demands it back, causing other customers to misinterpret and all demand their money back, causing a bank run. Jane and Michael flee the bank, getting lost in the East End until they run into Bert, who is now a chimney sweep. He escorts them home, suggesting their father does not hate them but has his own troubles to deal with. The three and Mary venture onto the rooftops where they have a song-and-dance number with other chimney sweeps until George returns home. George receives a phone call from his employers, telling him to meet them later for disciplinary action. George speaks with Bert who tells him that while he needs to work, he should spend more time with his children before they grow up. Jane and Michael give their father Michael s tuppence in the hope to make amends.
George walks through London to the bank, where he is given a humiliating cashiering and is dismissed. Looking to the tuppence for words, he raucously blurts out, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!", tells one of Uncle Albert's jokes the children originally told him, and happily heads home. Dawes mulls over the joke, but finally "gets" it, and floats up into the air, laughing. The next day, the wind changes, which means that Mary must leave. A happier George is found at home, having fixed his children s kite, and takes the family out to fly it. In the park, the Banks meet Mr. Dawes Jr, who reveals that his father died happily laughing from the joke and re-employs George as a junior partner. With her work done, Mary flies away with Bert bidding her farewell, telling her not to stay away too long.

SOLUTION:
What item does Mary Poppins present to George Banks upon her first arrival at their home?