TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you will be shown an extract from a movie plot. You need to read the extract and create questions that can be answered from the extract. The questions should be well-formed and grammatically correct. The questions should be completely answerable from the given passage and should not require any external knowledge. Subjective questions are not allowed. Create questions that result in factoid answers. A simple rule of thumb to decide whether a question is factoid or not is to see if two different people with average reading/comprehension skills would come up with the same answer after reading the passage.
PROBLEM: In 1927, silent film star George Valentin is posing for pictures outside the premiere of his latest hit film when a young woman, Peppy Miller, accidentally bumps into him. Valentin reacts with humor to the accident and shows off with Peppy for the cameras. The next day, Peppy finds herself on the front page of Variety with the headline "Who's That Girl?" Later, Peppy auditions as a dancer and is spotted by Valentin, who insists that she have a part in Kinograph Studios' next production, despite objections from the studio boss, Al Zimmer. While performing a scene in which they dance together, Valentin and Peppy show great chemistry, despite her being merely an extra. With a little guidance from Valentin (he draws a beauty spot on her, which will eventually be her trademark, after finding her in his dressing room), Peppy slowly rises through the industry, earning more prominent starring roles.Two years later, Zimmer announces the end of production of silent films at Kinograph Studios, but Valentin is dismissive, insisting that sound is just a fad. In a dream, Valentin begins hearing sounds from his environment (as does the audience), but cannot speak himself, then wakes up in a sweat. He decides to produce and direct his own silent film, financing it himself. The film opens on the same day as Peppy's new sound film as well as the 1929 Stock Market Crash. Now Valentin's only chance of avoiding bankruptcy is for his film to be a hit. Unfortunately audiences flock to Peppy's film instead and Valentin is ruined. His wife, Doris, kicks him out, and he moves into an apartment with his valet/chauffeur, Clifton, and his dog. Peppy goes on to become a major Hollywood star.Later, the bankrupt Valentin is forced to auction off all of his personal effects, and after realizing he has not paid loyal Clifton in over a year, gives him the car and fires him, telling him to get another job. Depressed and drunk, Valentin angrily sets a match to his private collection of his earlier films. As the nitrate film quickly blazes out of control he is overwhelmed by the smoke and passes out inside the burning house, still clutching a single film canister. However, Valentin's dog attracts the help of a nearby policeman, and after being rescued Valentin is hospitalized for injuries suffered in the fire. Peppy visits the hospital and discovers that the film he rescued is the one with them dancing together. She asks for him to be moved to her house to recuperate. Valentin awakens in a bed at her house, to find that Clifton is now working for Peppy. Valentin seems to remain dismissive of Peppy having taken him in, prompting Clifton to sternly remind Valentin of his changing luck.Peppy insists to Zimmer that Valentin co-star in her next film, threatening to quit Kinograph if Zimmer does not agree to her terms. After Valentin learns to his dismay that it had been Peppy who had purchased all his auctioned effects, he returns in despair to his burnt-out apartment. Peppy arrives, panicked, and finds that Valentin is about to attempt suicide with a handgun. Peppy tells him she only wanted to help him. They embrace and Valentin tells her it's no use; no one wants to hear him speak. Remembering Valentin's superb dancing ability, Peppy persuades Zimmer to let them make a musical together.Now the audience hears sound for the second time, as the film starts rolling for a dance scene with Peppy and Valentin and their tap-dancing can be heard. Once the choreography is complete, the two dancers are heard panting. The director of the musical calls out audibly, "Cut!" to which Zimmer adds: "Perfect. Beautiful. Could you give me one more?" Valentin, in his only audible line, replies "With pleasure!" revealing his French accent.[18] The camera then pulls back to the sounds of the film crew as they prepare to shoot another take.

SOLUTION: Who does Peppy want to costar in her next film?

PROBLEM: Charlie Baileygates (Jim Carrey), is an 18-year veteran of the Rhode Island State Police trooper who has been taken advantage of by people throughout his life. Immediately after his marriage, his shrewd wife, Layla (Traylor Howard), cheats on him with a violatle dwarf limosine driver, named Shonte (Tony Cox), who, like Layla, is a member of Mensa. Although Charlie's friends try informing him of his wife's infidelity, he still denies the possibility. Layla eventually runs off with Shonte; leaving Charlie to raise three black sons that are the products of Layla's adulterous affair with the limo driver. Charlie never sees his wife ever again. His wife affair and abandonment leaves Charlie so emotionally damaged to such the extent that he lets himself be verbaly and physically abused by others. Despite him being a police officer, all his neighbors and other citizens reject his authority with open scorn because they see him as a pushover as well as a weak and ineffective person.Flashing forward 15 years, Charlie continues to raise and spoil his three illigimate African-American sons Jamal (Anthony Anderson), Lee Harvey (Mongo Brownlee) and Shonte Jr. (Jerod Mixon), all of whom have become overweight from poor and unbalanced diets as well as use vulger and profane language from being allowed to watch foul-mouthed stand-up comedien movies from Richard Pryor to Chris Rock. Yet, all people in town continue to treat Charlie with scorn and abuse; his own neighbor steals his newspaper and allows his pet dog to deficate on the front lawn of his house; a little girl curses and insults him; a mutual friend continues to illegaly park his car and tear up parking tickets that Charlie gives him. Every townsperson on the street that Charlie interacts with takes advantage of his kind personality to further abuse him. After all the continous abuse and disrespect, Charlie's anger builds up, but he continues to keep it repressed until suddenly after a shrewd "soccer mom" delibrately cuts in front of him at a supermarket line, Charlie suddenly developes a rude, foul-mouthed, violent split personality named Hank. Within minutes, "Hank" gets revenge against all the people that have done "Charlie" wrong until he gets arrested by his own police co-workers. At the urging of his boss Colonel Partington (Robert Forester), Charlie visits a psychiatrist who tells him that his alter-ego Hank was created by decades of repressed anger and frustration, stemming from his wife's abandonment to his friends and neighbors scorning him, which has led to "advanced delusionary schizophrenia with involuntary narcissistic rage."The psychiatrist prescribes him a medicine to keep his double personality suppressed. Believing that Charlie needs a vacation, Col. Partington tells him to escort a woman named Irene Waters (Renee Zellweger) to Massena, New York because it was reported that she committed a hit and run that was actually committed by Dickie (Daniel Greene), Irene's partner. When some hit men arrive with a contract on Irene's life, Charlie agrees to help her escape, while two United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agents are killed by the hit men. Charlie leaves his medicine behind, causing his alter ego, Hank, to surface any time he wants.Two FBI agents, Agent Boshane (Richard Jenkins) and Agent Peterson (Zen Gesner), suspect that Charlie is responsible for the assassination of the two EPA agents. While pretending to work with the police to find their father, Charlie's three sons throw the police off their father's trail, and they proceed to steal a police helicopter to get to Charlie before the police.Meanwhile, Dickie orders some corrupt agents to kill both Charlie and Irene to prevent them from testifying against the EPA where Irene used to work for on dirty dealings. After they fail, Dickie decides to settle the matter himself. During the confrontation with Dickie, Charlie manages to eliminate the alternate personality, Hank. Eventually, he manages to stop Dickie, and put an end to the corruption. With Hank gone, and all the members of the conspiracy behind bars, the film ends Irene's departure. Charlie, however, makes a road block and arrests her in order to surprise her with a marriage proposal, which she accepts.After the credits roll, there is an additional scene in which Charlie, Irene, the boys and waiter Whitey try to find Charlie's severed thumb which was blasted into a river earlier, but to no avail.

SOLUTION: Who plays Charlie Baileygates?

PROBLEM: The first scene shows Matthew Stewart digging a grave for Grace Trevethyn's husband, John (Bill Weston), who has committed suicide. His now widow, Grace (Brenda Blethyn), an English woman living on a beautiful large estate, learns, upon his death, that John's debts had mounted to the point that her assets (home, car, garden) will soon be repossessed. The postman (Bill Hallet) keeps on bringing her more threatening letters from banks, credit cards... and he also tells all the townspeople about her problems. One of John and Grace's friends, Dr. Martin Bamford (Martin Clunes) tells her that everybody knew more or less that John was doing something fishy financially, but nobody wanted to interfere in his business. With desperation, Grace realises that all commercial schemes by her late husband were failures, and that they even had a secret account in Sweden, but with nothing in it.With no assets of note and no source of income, she watches helplessly as the process begins, and when her high-tech state-of-the-art lawnmower is taken away by some movers (led by Johnny Bamford), she must fire her gardener, Matthew Stewart (Craig Ferguson), to whom she is close. When she stumbles upon the fact that Matthew is not having much success growing some weed plants in the fields of the local vicarage because of the lack of sunlight and heat, feeling awful about having fired him, she suggests that he move his plants to her greenhouse.The plants begin to grow impressively, and Grace, quite innocently, asks Matthew what the plants are worth. The news that they are illegal marijuana plants that are quite valuable on the open market gives Grace an idea, one that might just save her from having her estate repossessed by the bank. Mass production of marijuana plants begins in Grace's greenhouse. Matthew's girlfriend, hard-working fishing boat captain Nicky Tristan (Valerie Edmond) wants no part of the plan. She wants Matthew to grow up, settle down and start taking responsibility for his own life. Some of the locals suspect what is going on, but, compassionately, stay out of Grace's way. In fact, some of them have the notion of watching the neon lights coming from the conservatory every night, as though it was some kind of show.Of course, somebody will have to go to London to line up a buyer for the marijuana. Matthew, a marijuana user and a man in his thirties is the logical candidate, but unbeknownst to him, his girlfriend is pregnant. Knowing of the pregnancy, and not wanting Matthew to leave the side of his girl, Grace insists that she be the one to go to London. Her escapade into the lowest depths of the London drug subculture is hilarious, and at first it looks like she is going to fail. However, suave and savvy Jacques Chevalier (Tcheky Karyo, more handsome than ever) eventually contacts her. He smooth-talks her into doing business.Authorities become aware of the drugs on her estate because of the flying saucer-like lights which the greenhouse now emits. Local police officer Sgt. Alfred Mabely (Ken Campbell) has let things be, as he thought she was cultivating just a small quanitity of weed for her own personal use and that she needed it to cope with all the debts and stress. But when he realises that it's a huge quantity, he has to get involved and investigate the matter.Grace has little choice but to destroy her own inventory. However, as the marijuana plants are not completely dry, they produce such a huge quantity of smoke that Grace, Matthew, the posh visiting ladies (Phillida Law, Linda Kerr Scott, Denise Coffey) who didn't wait for Grace to appear to make themselves some tea, and even the police officers -including Mabely - get high. The scene leaves with everybody jumping, dancing and caressing happily in the garden while naked.In a strange twist of fate, however, Grace writes a book describing her remarkable experience called The Joint Venture. The novel becomes a best seller, and, suddenly, her financial worries are over. She has to travel again to London to receive an award won by her novel, while all the townsfolk look at her on TV. Now we come to realise that Grace and Jacques are a couple, that he has left London for her small town and he strongly denies to some journalists that he ever got involved with any kind of drug.

SOLUTION:
What does Matthew do for income when he is not working on Grace's estate?