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: Many chemicals that were once commonly used were later found out to be harmful to the environment , to human health, or both. The element lead was once a common additive to gasoline and to paint. Plumbing pipes were once typically made of lead. Only since the 1970s has the danger of lead become apparent. It causes brain damage and small children (who often chewed on objects painted with lead-based paint) are particularly susceptible. The use of lead in gasoline, paint, and plumbing pipes is now banned and new materials are being developed to replace the hazardous lead components.
Story: John is trying to buy a house. Today, he saw two houses, house A and house B. House A was build in the 1920s. It has lead plumbing pipes and lead based paint. House B was build recently. It does not have lead plumbing pipes or lead based paint.
Question: Which house would more likely cause brain damage, house A or house B?

SOLUTION: house A.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: When you add sugar to a cold drink, you may stir it to help the sugar dissolve. If you don't stir, the sugar may eventually dissolve, but it will take much longer. Stirring is one of several factors that affect how fast a solute dissolves in a solvent. Temperature is another factor. A solid solute dissolves faster at a higher temperature. For example, sugar dissolves faster in hot tea than in ice tea. A third factor that affects the rate of dissolving is the surface area of the solute. For example, if you put granulated sugar in a glass of ice tea, it will dissolve more quickly than the same amount of sugar in a cube. That's because granulated sugar has much more surface area than a cube of sugar. You can see videos of all three factors at these URLs.
Story: Greg is is a chef. Last night, he was in his kitchen preparing foods for the guests. First, he made some lemonade. In trial one he added some honey in it and stirred it, but in trial two he didn't stir it. Then he made some coffee. In trial three he added hot water in it, but in trial four he added cold water in it. Finally, he made some soup. In trial five he added fine grain salt in it, but in trial six he added coarse salt in it.
Question: In which trial the soup would be prepared faster, trial five or trial six?

SOLUTION: trial five.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: A period of very low rainfall occurred while the Grants were on the islands. The drought resulted in fewer seeds for the finches to eat. Birds with smaller beaks could eat only the smaller seeds. Birds with bigger beaks were better off. They could eat seeds of all sizes. Therefore, there was more food available to them. Many of the small-beaked birds died in the drought. More of the big-beaked birds survived and reproduced. Within just a couple of years, the average beak size in the finches increased. This was clearly evolution by natural selection.
Story: Two ancient continents both had a great bird population. At some point in time, the continent of MU experienced a great drought that lasted for several years. The other continent, Lemuria, was unaffected by the drought.
Question: Which continent had more small-beaked birds die in the drought?

SOLUTION:
MU.