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: A baby is born with zones of cartilage in its bones that allow growth of the bones. These areas, called growth plates , allow the bones to grow longer as the child grows. By the time the child reaches an age of about 18 to 25 years, all of the cartilage in the growth plate has been replaced by bone. This stops the bone from growing any longer. Even though bones stop growing in length in early adulthood, they can continue to increase in thickness throughout life. This thickening occurs in response to strain from increased muscle activity and from weight-lifting exercises.
Story: Two brothers, Tom, aged 26, and Paul, aged 16, started weight-lifting to gain more muscle mass. Three years later they were 20-25 lbs. heavier.
Question: Which brother had active growth cartilages?

SOLUTION: Paul.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Saturated hydrocarbons are given the general name of alkanes . The name of specific alkanes always ends in ane . The first part of the name indicates how many carbon atoms each molecule of the alkane has. The smallest alkane is methane. It has just one carbon atom. The next largest is ethane with two carbon atoms. The chemical formulas and properties of methane, ethane, and other small alkanes are listed in the Table below . The boiling and melting points of alkanes are determined mainly by the number of carbon atoms they have. Alkanes with more carbon atoms generally boil and melt at higher temperatures.
Story: Two students studied chemistry. Nate studied alkanes, and Ben studied noble gasses. They both got an A later on.
Question: Which student learned more about methane?

SOLUTION: Nate.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: The jejunum is the second part of the small intestine, where most nutrients are absorbed into the blood. As shown in Figure below , the mucous membrane lining the jejunum is covered with millions of microscopic, fingerlike projections called villi (singular, villus). Villi contain many capillaries, and nutrients pass from the villi into the bloodstream through the capillaries. Because there are so many villi, they greatly increase the surface area for absorption. In fact, they make the inner surface of the small intestine as large as a tennis court!.
Story: Pete liked the human physiology so he started reading about the digestive system, especially about the jejunum. His colleague Fox, studied more about the stomach.
Question: Which student read less about where most nutrients are absorbed into the blood?

SOLUTION:
Fox.