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 need to come up with a question about the story that requires an understanding of the relationship described in the background paragraph. The generated question should not be answerable without both the background and story. Write a question about the story that requires a relationship in the background paragraph to answer. Check whether your question requires both the background paragraph and the story to answer. If your question can be answered by only one of these, try to rewrite your question so that it requires both. Note that "flipping" a word in the question can give rise to a new question where the answer will be different from the original question. Often, "flipping" a word gives rise to flipping the direction of the relationship, for example, from "increase" to "decrease."

Background Paragraph: In the study of thermochemical processes, things are viewed from the point of view of the system. A chemical reaction or physical change is endothermic if heat is absorbed by the system from the surroundings. In the course of an endothermic process, the system gains heat from the surroundings and so the temperature of the surroundings decreases. The quantity of heat for a process is represented by the letter . The sign of for an endothermic process is positive because the system is gaining heat. A chemical reaction or physical change is exothermic if heat is released by the system into the surroundings. Because the surroundings is gaining heat from the system, the temperature of the surroundings increases. The sign of for an exothermic process is negative because the system is losing heat.
Story: Calving is sitting in his kitchen when he decides to play around with some ice and water. He takes an ice cube out of the freezer and puts it on a plate on his kitchen table. He then takes a glass of water and puts it into the freezer. He is curious to see if the ice cube will melt before the water freezes.
Is the ice cube melting an exothermic or endothermic reaction?

Background Paragraph: Enzymes increase the rate of chemical reactions by reducing the amount of activation energy needed for reactants to start reacting. One way this can happen is modeled in the Figure below . Enzymes aren't changed or used up in the reactions they catalyze, so they can be used to speed up the same reaction over and over again. Each enzyme is highly specific for the particular reaction is catalyzes, so enzymes are very effective. A reaction that would take many years to occur without its enzyme might occur in a split second with the enzyme. Enzymes are also very efficient, so waste products rarely form.
Story: Two scientists, Cathy and Mark, are working on a new project. They want to make a new polymer using two chemicals. Mark mixes the two chemicals together on the first day and after a week of waiting he has managed to create a new polymer. While he is happy about the result he feels a week is way to long. Cathy has an idea. She decides to try adding an enzyme to the chemical mixture, The mixture only takes seconds to form the new polymer and the enzyme she used is in tact floating on top of the now completed polymer. She decides to test even further and uses the left over enzyme on another batch of chemicals. The reaction occurs in seconds again and the same amount of enzyme is left floating on top of the polymer for her to use again in the next batch.
Will using the enzyme in the chemical mixture increase or decrease the speed of the reaction?

Background Paragraph: They feed on living hosts. As parasites , fungi live in or on other organisms and get their nutrients from their host. Parasitic fungi use enzymes to break down living tissue, which may causes illness in the host. Disease-causing fungi are parasitic. Recall that parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species in which one, the parasite, benefits from a close association with the other, the host, which is harmed.
Story: Bill and Larry did some research on fungi. Larry researched saprophytic fungi, while Bill researched parasitic fungi. They later exchanged findings.
Which researcher learned less about disease-causing fungi?