instruction:
In this task, a passage will be given and the goal is to identify an event from the passage. An event is defined as a single word representing something that happened, is happening, or may happen. An event can be factual or hypothetical, positive or negative, certain or uncertain. While most events are based on verbs, an event can also be based on a noun (ex. storm, snow, rainfall) or a copula verb (is, was, been, etc.). The event must not be a pronoun or an adjective. For noun events with multiple words, use the last word in the phrase as event.
question:
Passage: Tomen said its capital tie-up with the Rotterdam-based Koppert would help breed and market types of benign insects peculiar to Japan. It plans to sell 12 other types of insects to farmers for use in greenhouses.
answer:
said

question:
Passage: Even if the gross national product is either flat or in the growth range of 2% to 2.5%, "we can handle that," Mr. Marous said. GNP is the total value of the nation's output of goods and services.
answer:
is

question:
Passage: Milton Roy recently fended off unsolicited overtures from Thermo Electron Corp., a Waltham, Mass., maker of biomedical products. Milton Roy disclosed in May that it was approached for a possible acquisition by Thermo Electron, which agreed to purchase Milton Roy's liquid-chromatography line for $22 million in February.
answer:
fended