Premise: Services also operate down the west coast to Rennes, Bordeaux, and the Pyrenees.

Hypothesis: Extending hundreds of miles, services operate along the west coast through Rennes, Bordeaux and the Pyrenees.
Answer: it is not possible to tell

Premise: It's intellectually stimulating, he says.

Hypothesis: Someone says something is intellectually stimulating.
Answer: yes

Premise: The litigious environment has also led to a check box mentality where it is more important to follow the accounting rules when preparing financial statements than actually reporting the economic substance of the transaction.

Hypothesis: The environment has made it more important to follow the accounting rules than to report the economic substance of the transaction.
Answer: yes

Premise: How odd that John Gielgud and the Smithsonian are fighting with one another, since they are, in many ways, so alike.

Hypothesis: John Gielgud and the Smithsonian have been friends since high school.
Answer: it is not possible to tell