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 need to come up with a question about the story that requires an understanding of the relationship described in the background paragraph. The generated question should not be answerable without both the background and story. Write a question about the story that requires a relationship in the background paragraph to answer. Check whether your question requires both the background paragraph and the story to answer. If your question can be answered by only one of these, try to rewrite your question so that it requires both. Note that "flipping" a word in the question can give rise to a new question where the answer will be different from the original question. Often, "flipping" a word gives rise to flipping the direction of the relationship, for example, from "increase" to "decrease."
PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: The Mercator projection is best within 15 degrees north or south of the equator. Landmasses or countries outside that zone get stretched out of shape. The further the feature is from the equator, the more out of shape it is stretched. For example, if you look at Greenland on a globe, you see it is a relatively small country near the North Pole. Yet, on a Mercator projection, Greenland looks almost as big the United States. Because Greenland is closer to the pole, the continent's shape and size are greatly increased. The United States is closer to its true dimensions.
Story: Stef is a young girl interested in the geography of the world. For her birthday, she got two different representations of the Earth. Her grandparents gave her a map that uses the Mercator projection and her uncle gave her a globe. She is comparing how certain countries look differently on the two gifts and trying to figure out why that is. She is specifically looking at Norway, a country near the North Pole, and Mexico, a country close to the equator.

SOLUTION: On which representation of Earth will Norway look bigger?

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: The quantity of small plastic fragments floating in the north-east Pacific Ocean increased a hundredfold between 1972 and 2012.Marine pollution is a generic term for the harmful entry into the ocean of chemicals or particles. The main culprits are those using the rivers for disposing of their waste. The rivers then empty into the ocean, often also bringing chemicals used as fertilizers in agriculture. The excess of oxygen-depleting chemicals in the water leads to hypoxia and the creation of a dead zone.Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human-created waste that has ended up floating in a lake, sea, ocean, or waterway. Oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the center of gyres and coastlines, frequently washing aground where it is known as beach litter.In addition, the Pacific Ocean has served as the crash site of satellites, including Mars 96, Fobos-Grunt, and Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite.
Story: Robert and his brother Jeff are both farmers whose farms are near large rivers. These rivers eventually flow into the Pacific Ocean. Robert recently switched to a different brand of fertilizer to increase the yield on his crops. This fertilizer contains a chemical that tends to destroy oxygen when it comes into contact with it. Due to heavy rains on his farm, large amounts of this fertilizer have been leaking into the river near Robert's farm. Meanwhile, Jeff uses fertilizer that is very stable and does not leak into the rivers near his farm.

SOLUTION: Who will contribute less to the formation of dead zones in the Pacific Ocean?

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Huge amounts of chemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides, are applied to farm fields (see Figure below ). Some of the chemicals are picked up by rainwater. Runoff then carries the chemicals to nearby rivers or lakes. Dissolved fertilizer causes too much growth of water plants and algae. This can lead to dead zones where nothing can live in lakes and at the mouths of rivers. Some of the chemicals can infiltrate into groundwater. The contaminated water comes up in water wells. If people drink the polluted water, they may get sick.
Story: Rick and Dale are both farmers that have lakes near their farm fields. Rick just began using large amounts of fertilizers because he is trying to improve his harvest significantly this year. Meanwhile, Dale has been cutting back on his fertilizer use because demand for his product has decreased recently.

SOLUTION:
If both men's farms receive the same amount of rain, lakes near which person's farms are at higher risk for developing dead zones?