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 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."
PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Depleted soils can be protected from soil erosion by groundcover plants such as naturally growing grasses in agroforestry systems. These help to stabilise the soil as they increase cover compared to short-cycle cropping systems. Soil cover is a crucial factor in preventing erosion. Cleaner water through reduced nutrient and soil surface runoff can be a further advantage of agroforestry. The runoff can be reduced by decreasing its velocity and increasing infiltration into the soil. Compared to row-cropped fields nutrient uptake can be higher and reduce nutrient loss into streams.Further advantages concerning plant growth:.
Story: Rob is an environmental scientist. He was doing a study on agroforestry. To test the sustainability of agroforestry he conducted two pilot projects, pilot A and pilot B. In pilot A, he used a land for agrofroestry. In pilot B, he used a land for usual row-cropping. He needed to find the pros and cons of both systems.

SOLUTION: Which project would have higher nutrient uptake, pilot A or pilot B?

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Making these healthy lifestyle choices can also help prevent some types of cancer. In addition, you can lower the risk of cancer by avoiding carcinogens , which are substances that cause cancer. For example, you can reduce your risk of lung cancer by not smoking. You can reduce your risk of skin cancer by using sunscreen. How to choose a sunscreen that offers the most protection is explained below ( Figure below ). Some people think that tanning beds are a safe way to get a tan. This is a myth. Tanning beds expose the skin to UV radiation. Any exposure to UV radiation increases the risk of skin cancer. It doesn't matter whether the radiation comes from tanning lamps or the sun.
Story: Steve and Bill are really good friends with each other. The other day they were talking about some habits they have. Steve likes to work out and stay in shape, eats healthy and does not smoke. Bill said he wants to be more like Steve. Bill currently smokes, and loves to go out tanning in the sun without out sunscreen.

SOLUTION: Is Bill's chance of lung cancer higher or lower than Steve's?

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: The general trend in electronegativity is that the value increases from left to right across a row in the periodic table and decreases down a column. The most electronegative element is fluorine, which has a value of 4.0. As discussed in the lesson "Trends in the Periodic Table," electronegativity increases across a row as the number of protons in the nucleus increases and therefore has a stronger pull. Electronegativity decreases down a column due to an increased effect of electron shielding in larger atoms.
Story: A high school student, Timmy, is reading about elements of a periodic table. He is studying the periodic table when he decides to compare two random elements within the same column. He chooses Mardine and Sampline to compare and contrast and gets to work. The first thing he notices is that Sampline is further down the periodic table than Mardine. It's not much information to go on, but it's a good starting point for Timmy.

SOLUTION:
Is electron shielding higher or lower in Mardine?