Question:
Passage: In the early nineteenth century, the original Norman castle had been enlarged and refashioned by Henry Holland for the 1st Marquess, the 3rd Marquess's great-grandfather. The 2nd Marquess occupied the castle on visits to his extensive Glamorgan estates, during which he developed modern Cardiff and created Cardiff Docks as the outlet for coal and steel from the South Wales Valleys, but did little to the castle itself, beyond completing the 1st Marquess's work.
The 3rd Marquess despised Holland's efforts, describing the castle as having been "the victim of every barbarism since the Renaissance", and, on his coming of age, engaged Burges to undertake rebuilding on a Wagnerian scale. Almost all of Burges's usual team were involved, including Chapple, Frame and Lonsdale, creating a building which John Newman describes in Glamorgan: The Buildings of Wales as the "most successful of all the fantasy castles of the nineteenth century."
The central block of the castle comprises the two storey banqueting hall, with the library below. Both are enormous, the former to act as a suitable reception hall where the Marquess could fulfil his civic duties, the latter to hold part of his vast library. Both include elaborate carvings and fireplaces, those in the banqueting hall depicting the castle itself in the time of Robert, Duke of Normandy, who was imprisoned there in 1126–1134. The fireplace in the library contains five figures, four representing the Greek, Egyptian, Hebrew and Assyrian alphabets, while the fifth is said to represent Bute as a Celtic monk. The figures refer to the purpose of the room and to the Marquess, a noted linguist. The decoration of these large rooms is less successful than in the smaller chambers; much was completed after Burges's death and Girouard considers that the muralist, Lonsdale, "was required to cover areas rather greater than his talents deserved."The central portion of the castle also included the Grand Staircase. Illustrated in a watercolour perspective prepared by Axel Haig, the staircase was long thought never to have been built but recent research has shown that it was constructed, only to be torn out in the 1930s, reputedly after the third Marchioness had "once slipped on its polished surface." The staircase was not universally praised in the contemporary press; the Building News writing that the design was "one of the least happy we have seen from Mr Burges's pencil...the contrasts of colour are more startling than pleasing." The Arab Room in the Herbert Tower was the last room on which Burges was working when he fell ill in 1881. Bute placed Burges's initials, together with his own and the date, in the fireplace of that room as a memorial. The room was completed by Burges's brother-in-law, Richard Popplewell Pullan.

Passage: As a result of Henry's expansion, St Peter ad Vincula, a Norman chapel which had previously stood outside the Tower, was incorporated into the castle. Henry decorated the chapel by adding glazed windows, and stalls for himself and his queen. It was rebuilt by Edward I at a cost of over £300 and again by Henry VIII in 1519; the current building dates from this period, although the chapel was refurbished in the 19th century. Immediately west of Wakefield Tower, the Bloody Tower was built at the same time as the inner ward's curtain wall, and as a water-gate provided access to the castle from the River Thames. It was a simple structure, protected by a portcullis and gate. The Bloody Tower acquired its name in the 16th century, as it was believed to be the site of the murder of the Princes in the Tower. Between 1339 and 1341, a gatehouse was built into the curtain wall between Bell and Salt Towers. During the Tudor period, a range of buildings for the storage of munitions was built along the inside of the north inner ward. The castle buildings were remodelled during the Stuart period, mostly under the auspices of the Office of Ordnance. In 1663 just over £4,000 was spent building a new storehouse (now known as the New Armouries) in the inner ward. Construction of the Grand Storehouse north of the White Tower began in 1688, on the same site as the dilapidated Tudor range of storehouses; it was destroyed by fire in 1841. The Waterloo Block, a former barracks in the castellated Gothic Revival style with Domestic Tudor details, was built on the site and remains to this day, housing the Crown Jewels on the ground floor.

Passage: William Burges  (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoclassical architectural style and re-establish the architectural and social values of a utopian medieval England. Burges stands within the tradition of the Gothic Revival, his works echoing those of the Pre-Raphaelites and heralding those of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Burges's career was short but illustrious; he won his first major commission for Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork in 1863, when he was 35, and he died, in 1881, at his Kensington home, The Tower House, aged only 53. His architectural output was small but varied. Working with a long-standing team of craftsmen, he built churches, a cathedral, a warehouse, a university, a school, houses and castles.
Burges's most notable works are Cardiff Castle, constructed between 1866 and 1928, and Castell Coch (1872–91), both of which were built for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. Other significant buildings include Gayhurst House, Buckinghamshire (1858–65), Knightshayes Court (1867–74), the Church of Christ the Consoler (1870–76), St Mary's, Studley Royal (1870–78), in Yorkshire, and Park House, Cardiff (1871–80).
Many of his designs were never executed or were subsequently demolished or altered. His competition entries for cathedrals at Lille (1854), Adelaide (1856), Colombo, Brisbane (1859), Edinburgh (1873), and Truro (1878) were all unsuccessful. He lost out to George Edmund Street in the competition for the Royal Courts of Justice (1866–67) in The Strand. His plans for the redecoration of the interior of St Paul's Cathedral (1870–77) were abandoned and he was dismissed from his post. Skilbeck's Warehouse (1865–66) was demolished in the 1970s, and work at Salisbury Cathedral (1855–59), at Worcester College, Oxford (1873–79), and at Knightshayes Court had been lost in the decades before.
Beyond architecture, Burges designed metalwork, sculpture, jewellery, furniture and stained glass. Art Applied to Industry, a series of lectures he gave to the Society of Arts in 1864, illustrates the breadth of his interests; the topics covered including glass, pottery, brass and iron, gold and silver, furniture, the weaver's art and external architectural decoration. For most of the century following his death, Victorian architecture was neither the subject of intensive study nor sympathetic attention and Burges's work was largely ignored. The revival of interest in Victorian art, architecture, and design in the later twentieth century led to a renewed appreciation of Burges and his work.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question:
Passage: Reid, Darrin, and Ben are three close friends who attend a party together one evening. During the party, Reid inexplicably vanishes. Unable to find him, Darrin and Ben leave. While driving home on a dark, secluded road, they suddenly find Reid standing in the middle of the road, leading to them nearly running him over. Once in the car, Reid seems detached and in a daze, though nothing is made of his odd behavior.
The incident causes Reid to become obsessed with aliens and, in particular, Area 51. He spends the next three months devising a plan to infiltrate Area 51 and uncover the base's secrets. However, Reid's obsession with extraterrestrial research leaves him detached from his family and even causes him to lose his job. He is joined by Darrin, Ben, and Jelena, another conspiracy theorist whose father worked at Area 51. They plan on infiltrating the military base by using signal jammers, night vision goggles, Freon-laced jumpsuits, and pills to mask their ammonia levels.Per the advice of Jelena's father, the group stalks a man they suspect is an important figure at Area 51. Reid and Darrin sneak into the man's house and steal his security badge. Ben drops the three off in the middle of the desert and waits for them to return. Reid, Darrin and Jelena successfully bypass the base's perimeter defenses and enter the complex using the security badge they had previously acquired. The three venture deeper into the base where they discover a lab containing a life-like liquid substance and anti-gravity material. They also encounter an alien spacecraft in a hangar, which only Reid can enter and interact with.

Passage: Roy DuBro and Ed Klingbottom are garbage men who are constantly undermined by their corrupt boss Junior Assistant Dispatcher Trainee Stanley Snyder.
One day, the earth is secretly invaded by an army of flying saucers, commanded by a Darth Vader-esque alien called Glaxxon. A saucer abducts the two men and the aliens on board attempt to vivisect them. They awaken just in time and escape back to earth with an alien fire extinguisher. When they arrive late for work and try to tell Stanley about the aliens, he doesn't believe them, having heard every alien story ever from fellow worker Old Bob.
President Smith and his significantly more competent press secretary receive news about the invasion from General Vice and the President tells his advisor, Dr. Strangemeister, to find two people with alien experience and make them into secret agents. Unbeknownst to anyone, Strangemeister is secretly in league with Glaxon, who is infuriated by Ed and Roy's interference. Strangemeister hires the two of them, believing that they are destined to fail and transforms them into 'The Men in White'.
The aliens start abducting people all over the world. Roy suggests the two of them use a cow as bait. The plan works and they successfully capture an alien spaceship. They discover  a device that makes them forget the last several seconds, and the two of them get stuck in a continuous loop for several hours until its batteries run down.

Passage: A NASA spacecraft lands on an unknown planet and begins to take rock and soil samples. Four aliens discover it and are sucked into the craft through its vacuum tube, after which it makes its way back to Earth. The aliens are able to escape from a government base by using their powers (with which they can destroy or heal anything they touch). During the escape, the youngest one hides in a passing van, occupied by a boy named Eric Cruise who uses a wheelchair, his older brother, Michael, and their single mother, Janet, who are moving to California from Illinois.
Shortly after the Cruise family arrives at their new home, Eric becomes suspicious of the alien's presence. The next morning, he finds that the creature has trashed most of the house and learns its identity, but is blamed alongside his brother by their mother for what has happened. After seeing the creature again, Eric tries to catch up to him, but ends up sliding down a hill and falls into a lake, where he nearly drowns, but is rescued by the alien. Eric is not believed at all when he tries to tell his family about the creature's actions.
Later that night, he sets a trap with the help of his new friend, Debbie, who had also seen the alien. The two trap him inside a vacuum cleaner, which malfunctions and causes the entire neighborhood to suffer a power surge. After the alien is released, Michael now believes Eric, but it leaves before Janet can be convinced. Eric's behavior towards the alien changes after he fixes all of the damage he caused to the house, and leaves behind several newspaper clippings which Eric believes are an attempt to communicate.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question: Passage: In 1684, a council led by Enrique Enríquez de Guzmán, the governor of Guatemala, decided on the reduction of San Mateo Ixtatán and nearby Santa Eulalia, both within the colonial administrative district of the Corregimiento of Huehuetenango.On 29 January 1686, Captain Melchor Rodríguez Mazariegos, acting under orders from the governor, left Huehuetenango for San Mateo Ixtatán, where he recruited indigenous warriors from the nearby villages, 61 from San Mateo itself. It was believed by the Spanish colonial authorities that the inhabitants of San Mateo Ixtatán were friendly towards the still unconquered and fiercely hostile inhabitants of the Lacandon region, which included parts of what is now the Mexican state of Chiapas and the western part of the Petén Basin. To prevent news of the Spanish advance reaching the inhabitants of the Lacandon area, the governor ordered the capture of three of San Mateo's community leaders, named as Cristóbal Domingo, Alonso Delgado and Gaspar Jorge, and had them sent under guard to be imprisoned in Huehuetenango. The governor himself arrived in San Mateo Ixtatán on 3 February, where Captain Rodríguez Mazariegos was already awaiting him. The governor ordered the captain to remain in the village and use it as a base of operations for penetrating the Lacandon region. The Spanish missionaries Fray de Rivas and Fray Pedro de la Concepción also remained in the town. Governor Enriquez de Guzmán subsequently left San Mateo Ixtatán for Comitán in Chiapas, to enter the Lacandon region via Ocosingo.In 1695, a three-way invasion of the Lacandon was launched simultaneously from San Mateo Ixtatán, Cobán and Ocosingo. Captain Rodriguez Mazariegos, accompanied by Fray de Rivas and 6 other missionaries together with 50 Spanish soldiers, left Huehuetenango for San Mateo Ixtatán. Following the same route used in 1686, they managed on the way to recruit 200 indigenous Maya warriors from Santa Eulalia, San Juan Solomá and San Mateo itself. On 28 February 1695, all three groups left their respective bases of operations to conquer the Lacandon. The San Mateo group headed northeast into the Lacandon Jungle.

Passage: In Guazacapán, now a municipality in Santa Rosa, Pedro de Alvardo described his encounter with people who were neither Maya nor Pipil, speaking a different language altogether; these people were probably Xinca. At this point Alvarado's force consisted of 250 Spanish infantry accompanied by 6,000 indigenous allies, mostly Kaqchikel and Cholutec. Alvarado and his army defeated and occupied the most important Xinca city, named as Atiquipaque, usually considered to be in the Taxisco area. The defending warriors were described by Alvarado as engaging in fierce hand-to-hand combat using spears, stakes and poisoned arrows. The battle took place on 26 May 1524 and resulted in a significant reduction of the Xinca population. Alvarado's army continued eastwards from Atiquipaque, seizing several more Xinca cities. Tacuilula feigned a peaceful reception only to unsuccessfully raise arms against the conquistadors within an hour of their arrival. Taxisco and Nancintla fell soon afterwards. Because Alvarado and his allies could not understand the Xinca language, Alvarado took extra precautions on the march eastward by strengthening his vanguard and rearguard with ten cavalry apiece. In spite of these precautions the baggage train was ambushed by a Xinca army soon after leaving Taxisco. Many indigenous allies were killed and most of the baggage was lost, including all the crossbows and ironwork for the horses. This was a serious setback and Alvarado camped his army in Nancintla for eight days, during which time he sent two expeditions against the attacking army. Jorge de Alvarado led the first attempt with thirty to forty cavalry and although they routed the enemy they were unable to retrieve any of the lost baggage, much of which had been destroyed by the Xinca for use as trophies. Pedro de Portocarrero led the second attempt with a large infantry detachment but was unable to engage with the enemy due to the difficult mountain terrain, so returned to Nancintla. Alvarado sent out Xinca messengers to make contact with the enemy but they failed to return. Messengers from the city of Pazaco, in the modern department of Jutiapa, offered peace to the conquistadors but when Alvarado arrived there the next day the inhabitants were preparing for war. Alvarado's troops encountered a sizeable quantity of gathered warriors and quickly routed them through the city's streets. From Pazaco Alvarado crossed the Río Paz and entered what is now El Salvador.After the conquest of the Pacific plain, the inhabitants paid tribute to the Spanish in the form of valuable products such as cacao, cotton, salt and vanilla, with an emphasis on cacao.

Passage: Spanish pirate and guarda costa privateer Juan Corso had independently heard rumors of the colony as early as the Spring of 1685; he set out to eliminate the settlement but his ship was caught in rough seas and poor weather and was lost with all hands. Afterwards La Salle's mission had remained nearly secret until 1686 when former expedition member Denis Thomas, who had deserted in Santo Domingo, was arrested for piracy. Trying to have his punishment reduced, Thomas informed his Spanish jailers of La Salle's plan to found a colony and eventually conquer Spanish silver mines. Despite his confession, Thomas was hanged.The Spanish government felt the French colony would be a threat to their mines and shipping routes, and Carlos II's Council of War thought that "Spain needed swift action 'to remove this thorn which has been thrust into the heart of America. The greater the delay the greater the difficulty of attainment.'" The Spanish had no idea where to find La Salle, and in 1686 they sent a sea expedition and two land expeditions to try to locate his colony. Although the expeditions were unable to find La Salle, they did narrow the search to the area between the Rio Grande and the Mississippi. Four Spanish expeditions the following year failed to find La Salle, but helped Spain to better understand the geography of the Gulf Coast region.
In 1688, the Spanish sent three more expeditions, two by sea and one by land. The land expedition, led by Alonso De León, discovered Jean Gery, who had deserted the French colony and was living in Southern Texas with the Coahuiltecans. Using Gery as a translator and guide, De León finally found the French fort in late April 1689. The fort and the five crude houses surrounding it were in ruins. Several months before, the Karankawa had attacked the settlement. They destroyed the structures and left the bodies of three people, including a woman who had been shot in the back. A Spanish priest who had accompanied De León conducted funeral services for the three victims. The chronicler of the Spanish expedition, Juan Bautista Chapa, wrote that the devastation was God's punishment for opposing the Pope, as Pope Alexander VI had granted the Indies exclusively to the Spanish. The remains of the fort were destroyed by the Spanish, who also buried the French cannons left behind. The Spanish later built a fort on the same location.
In early 1689, Spanish authorities received a plea, written in French. Jumano scouts had received these papers from the Caddo, who asked that they be delivered to the Spanish. The papers included a parchment painting of a ship, as well as a written message from Jean L'Archevêque. The message read:.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question:
Passage: The Twin Cities area is the fifteenth-largest media market in the United States, as ranked by Nielsen Media Research. The state's other top markets are Fargo–Moorhead (118th nationally), Duluth–Superior (137th), Rochester–Mason City–Austin (152nd), and Mankato (200th).Broadcast television in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest started on April 27, 1948, when KSTP-TV began broadcasting. Hubbard Broadcasting, which owns KSTP, is now the only locally owned television company in Minnesota. Twin Cities CBS station WCCO-TV and FOX station KMSP-TV are owned-and-operated by their respective networks. There are 39 analog broadcast stations and 23 digital channels broadcast over Minnesota.
The four largest daily newspapers are the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, the Pioneer Press in Saint Paul, the Duluth News Tribune in Duluth, and the Post-Bulletin in Rochester. The Minnesota Daily is the largest student-run newspaper in the U.S. Sites offering daily news on the Web include The UpTake, MinnPost, the Twin Cities Daily Planet, business news site Finance and Commerce and Washington D.C.-based Minnesota Independent. Weeklies including City Pages and monthly publications such as Minnesota Monthly are available.
Two of the largest public radio networks, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and Public Radio International (PRI), are based in the state. MPR has the largest audience of any regional public radio network in the nation, broadcasting on 37 radio stations. PRI weekly provides more than 400 hours of programming to almost 800 affiliates. The state's oldest radio station, KUOM-AM, was launched in 1922 and is among the 10-oldest radio stations in the United States. The University of Minnesota-owned station is still on the air, and since 1993 broadcasts a college rock format.

Passage: Minnesota ( (listen)) is a state in the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes, and northern regions of the United States. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. state on May 11, 1858, created from the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory. The state has a large number of lakes, and is known by the slogan the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". Its official motto is L'Étoile du Nord (French: Star of the North).
Minnesota is the 12th largest in area and the 22nd most populous of the U.S. states; nearly 60% of its residents live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area (known as the "Twin Cities"). This area is the center of transportation, business, industry, education, and government, while being home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now partially cleared, farmed, and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation.
Minnesota was inhabited by various indigenous peoples for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. French explorers, missionaries, and fur traders began exploring the region in the 17th century, encountering the Dakota and Ojibwe/Anishinaabe tribes. Much of what is today Minnesota was part of the vast French holding of Louisiana, which was purchased by the United States in 1803. Following several territorial reorganizations, Minnesota in its current form was admitted as the country's 32nd state on May 11, 1858. Like many Midwestern states, it remained sparsely populated and centered on lumber and agriculture. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a large number of European immigrants, mainly from Scandinavia and Germany, began to settle the state, which remains a center of Scandinavian American and German American culture.
In recent decades, immigration from Asia, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America has broadened its demographic and cultural composition. The state's economy has heavily diversified, shifting from traditional activities such as agriculture and resource extraction to services and finance. Minnesota's standard of living index is among the highest in the United States, and the state is also among the best-educated and wealthiest in the nation.

Passage: During late 1930 and early 1931, the plans were revised and streamlined. March 1931 saw the announcement of Plan F-18, which called for an International Music Hall (now Radio City Music Hall) and its 31-story office building annex to occupy the northernmost of the three blocks, located between 50th and 51st streets. The 66-story 831-foot (253 m) RCA Building would be located on the central block's western half, between 49th and 50th streets, and would house RCA and NBC offices as well as broadcasting studios. The oval-shaped retail complex would occupy the block's eastern half, with a rooftop garden. A RKO-operated sound theater would be located in the southernmost block between 48th and 49th streets. In the center of Radio City would be a new three-block-long private street running between Fifth and Sixth avenues, with a concave plaza at the midpoint. The complex would also include space for a future Metropolitan Opera venue on the northernmost block. An underground pedestrian shopping mall, which would be located above the underground bus terminal, was also added in this plan. The complex would include 28,000 windows and more than 125,000 short tons (112,000 long tons) of structural steel, according to the builders. It would cost $250 million.For the first time, a scale rendering of the proposed complex was presented to the public. The rendering was much criticized, with some taking issue with details or general dimensions of the as-yet-unconfirmed proposal, and others lambasting the location of the tall skyscrapers around the plaza. Daniel Okrent writes that "almost everyone" hated the updated plans. The renowned architectural scholar Lewis Mumford went into exile in upstate New York specifically because the "weakly conceived, reckless, romantic chaos" of the plans for Rockefeller Center had violated his sense of style. Mumford's commentary provoked a wave of blunt, negative criticism from private citizens; newspapers, such as the New York Herald Tribune; and architects, including both Frank Lloyd Wright and Ralph Adams Cram, whose styles were diametrically opposed to each other. The New York Times took note of the "universal condemnation" of the proposal, and after the complex's architects changed their plans in response to the criticism, the Times stated, "It is cheering to learn that the architects and builders of Radio City have been stirred by the public criticism of their plans." Despite the controversy over the complex's design, Rockefeller retained the Associated Architects for his project.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question:
Passage: On Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, a dispatched LASD Sheriff is shot dead by an armed robber, who early on robbed a convenience store and also killed its African-American owner. The alcoholic, hard-driven LAPD Detective Jerry Beck is tasked with the investigation. While examining police records he comes across a potential suspect named Bobby Burns, who has recently been paroled from a four-year robbery sentence. He and a parole officer go to Burns' home only to find his college student brother, John, who claims he has not seen Bobby and is staying only for the holidays. A man attempts to flee the house and Beck captures him after a chase on foot; he turns out to be one of Burns' friend who is also on parole for armed robbery. The man tells Beck that he last saw Burns driving a maroon Ford Ranch Wagon en route to Bakersfield.
In Arizona, Burns and his goons rob a Mexican bar and kill its patrons. A local police chief informs Beck of the crime and he immediately leaves for Arizona. Beck and the chief head to a ranch alleged to be Burns' hideout. There, Burns and his men attack the officers by firing automatic weapons; they escape driving the Ford. Beck retrieves a cache of documents Burns dropped, which contains white supremacy propaganda, maps, and an address book. Beck leaves for Oklahoma to track down one of the people listed in the book, Reverend Gebhardt, who is the leader of the religious white supremacist organization Aryan Nations. In Oklahoma, Beck is joined by FBI Agent Kressler and they head to Gebhardt's church, where Gebhardt states the entity's aim to cleanse America of its "racial impurities," and denies having seen Burns before. Burns, though, has been hiding near the church and casing the place.

Passage: Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Bigger Thomas, an African American who lives in an impoverished neighborhood, is employed by a prosperous white family who live in the suburbs of a major city. The money Bigger makes at his new job will be used to supplement his mother's income. As a chauffeur, he is directed by the father of the family to take Mary, the daughter, to the university. Instead, Mary decides to pick up her Socialist boyfriend, Jan, and to spend the time drinking and partying.
Jan and Mary portray a young liberal couple who venture into a black neighborhood with Bigger for the sole purpose of being entertained at Ernie's, a black nightclub. On the way home, Mary becomes inebriated and Bigger must get her to her bedroom without being detected. Mary's mother, who is blind, enters the room and Bigger panics at the thought of being caught with a white woman. He accidentally kills Mary by placing a pillow over her head to keep her quiet. Still frightened, Bigger disposes of the body in the furnace, possibly because he feels he would not get a fair trial for the accidental death of a white woman. Meanwhile, Jan is wanted by the police for Mary's murder and Bigger plays a role in the accusations against him.

Passage: Four days after the events of Rush Hour, LAPD Detective James Carter is on vacation in Hong Kong visiting his friend, Hong Kong Police Force Chief Inspector Lee, whom he met and befriended after working together to save the Chinese Consul Han's daughter, Soo Yung, in Los Angeles. Their leisure is temporarily put on hold as soon as a bomb explodes at the United States Consulate General, murdering two undercover U.S. Customs agents inside of it. Inspector Lee is assigned to the case, which becomes personal when it is discovered that it somehow involves Ricky Tan, his late police officer father's former partner. Ricky, who was suspected of having a role in elder Lee's death (although never proven), is now a leader of the Triads. This, however, causes Lee and Carter to get into a brawl between them and Ricky's bodyguards, with Carter becoming shocked with Lee as they were busy with their vacation.
The U.S. Secret Service, led by Agent Sterling, and the Hong Kong Police Force soon get into a fight over the jurisdiction of the case. Suddenly, Lee's office that Carter was in is bombed, causing Lee to believe he's dead and grieve for him. Carter is revealed to be alive, leaving the room before it exploded. He and a relieved Lee cross paths at Ricky's yacht where he is holding a dinner party. Ricky scolds his underling, Hu Li, who then leaves as Lee and Carter confront her boss. Just as Ricky asks for protection, Hu Li shoots him and makes her escape in the chaos. An angry Sterling holds Lee responsible for Ricky's death, and orders him off the case. Carter is ordered back to Los Angeles for involving himself and Lee volunteers to take him to the airport. However, at the airport, Carter gets Lee to return to LA with him.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question:
Passage: These scenic areas were first described for the public in magazine articles published by Union Pacific and Santa Fe railroads in 1916. People like Forest Supervisor J. W. Humphrey promoted the scenic wonders of Bryce Canyon's amphitheaters, and by 1918 nationally distributed articles also helped to spark interest. However, poor access to the remote area and the lack of accommodations kept visitation to a bare minimum.
Ruby Syrett, Harold Bowman and the Perry brothers later built modest lodging, and set up "touring services" in the area. Syrett later served as the first postmaster of Bryce Canyon. Visitation steadily increased, and by the early 1920s the Union Pacific Railroad became interested in expanding rail service into southwestern Utah to accommodate more tourists.
At the same time, conservationists became alarmed by the damage overgrazing, logging, and unregulated visitation were having on the fragile features of Bryce Canyon. A movement to have the area protected was soon started, and National Park Service Director Stephen Mather responded by proposing that Bryce Canyon be made into a state park. The governor of Utah and the Utah State Legislature, however, lobbied for national protection of the area. Mather relented and sent his recommendation to President Warren G. Harding, who on June 8, 1923 declared Bryce Canyon a national monument.A road was built the same year on the plateau to provide easy access to outlooks over the amphitheaters. From 1924 to 1925, Bryce Canyon Lodge was built from local timber and stone.Members of the United States Congress started work in 1924 on upgrading Bryce Canyon's protection status from a national monument to a national park in order to establish Utah National Park. A process led by the Utah Parks Company for transferring ownership of private and state-held land in the monument to the federal government started in 1923. The last of the land in the proposed park's borders was sold to the federal government four years later, and on February 25, 1928, the renamed Bryce Canyon National Park was established.In 1931, President Herbert Hoover annexed an adjoining area south of the park, and in 1942 an additional 635 acres (257 ha) was added. This brought the park's total area to the current figure of 35,835 acres (14,502 ha). Rim Road, the scenic drive that is still used today, was completed in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Administration of the park was conducted from neighboring Zion National Park until 1956, when Bryce Canyon's first superintendent started work.

Passage: Most park visitors sightsee using the scenic drive, which provides access to 13 viewpoints over the amphitheaters. Bryce Canyon has eight marked and maintained hiking trails that can be hiked in less than a day (round trip time, trailhead): Mossy Cave (one hour, State Route 12 northwest of Tropic), Rim Trail (5–6 hours, anywhere on rim), Bristlecone Loop (one hour, Rainbow Point), and Queens Garden (1–2 hours, Sunrise Point) are easy to moderate hikes. Navajo Loop (1–2 hours, Sunset Point) and Tower Bridge (2–3 hours, north of Sunrise Point) are moderate hikes. Fairyland Loop (4–5 hours, Fairyland Point) and Peekaboo Loop (3–4 hours, Bryce Point) are strenuous hikes. Several of these trails intersect, allowing hikers to combine routes for more challenging hikes.
The park also has two trails designated for overnight hiking: the 9-mile (14 km) Riggs Spring Loop Trail and the 23-mile (37 km) Under-the-Rim Trail. Both require a backcountry camping permit. In total there are 50 miles (80 km) of trails in the park.
More than 10 miles (16 km) of marked but ungroomed skiing trails are available off of Fairyland, Paria, and Rim trails in the park. Twenty miles (32 km) of connecting groomed ski trails are in nearby Dixie National Forest and Ruby's Inn.
The air in the area is so clear that on most days from Yovimpa and Rainbow points, Navajo Mountain and the Kaibab Plateau can be seen 90 miles (140 km) away in Arizona. On extremely clear days, the Black Mesas of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico can be seen some 160 miles (260 km) away.The park also has a 7.4 magnitude night sky, making it one of the darkest in North America. Stargazers can, therefore, see 7,500 stars with the naked eye, while in most places fewer than 2,000 can be seen due to light pollution, and in many large cities only a few dozen can be seen. Park rangers host public stargazing events and evening programs on astronomy, nocturnal animals, and night sky protection. The Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival, typically held in June, attracts thousands of visitors. In honor of this astronomy festival, Asteroid 49272 was named after the national park.There are two campgrounds in the park, North Campground and Sunset Campground. Loop A in North Campground is open year-round. Additional loops and Sunset Campground are open from late spring to early autumn. The 114-room Bryce Canyon Lodge is another way to stay overnight in the park.

Passage: There was considerable local opposition to the Yellowstone National Park during its early years. Some of the locals feared that the regional economy would be unable to thrive if there remained strict federal prohibitions against resource development or settlement within park boundaries and local entrepreneurs advocated reducing the size of the park so that mining, hunting, and logging activities could be developed. To this end, numerous bills were introduced into Congress by Montana representatives who sought to remove the federal land-use restrictions.After the park's official formation, Nathaniel Langford was appointed as the park's first superintendent in 1872 by Secretary of Interior Columbus Delano, the first overseer and controller of the park. Langford served for five years but was denied a salary, funding, and staff. Langford lacked the means to improve the land or properly protect the park, and without formal policy or regulations, he had few legal methods to enforce such protection.   This left Yellowstone vulnerable to poachers, vandals, and others seeking to raid its resources. He addressed the practical problems park administrators faced in the 1872 Report to the Secretary of the Interior and correctly predicted that Yellowstone would become a major international attraction deserving the continuing stewardship of the government. In 1874, both Langford and Delano advocated the creation of a federal agency to protect the vast park, but Congress refused. In 1875, Colonel William Ludlow, who had previously explored areas of Montana under the command of George Armstrong Custer, was assigned to organize and lead an expedition to Montana and the newly established Yellowstone Park. Observations about the lawlessness and exploitation of park resources were included in Ludlow's Report of a Reconnaissance to the Yellowstone National Park. The report included letters and attachments by other expedition members, including naturalist and mineralogist George Bird Grinnell.
Grinnell documented the poaching of buffalo, deer, elk, and antelope for hides. "It is estimated that during the winter of 1874–1875, not less than 3,000 buffalo and mule deer suffer even more severely than the elk, and the antelope nearly as much."As a result, Langford was forced to step down in 1877.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question: Passage: A number of plates in this group reveal a scepticism towards idolatry of religious images. There are instances in the group where early Christian iconography, in particular statues and processional images, are mocked and denigrated. Plate 67, Esta no lo es menos (This is no less curious), shows two statues carried by two stooped members of clergy. One statue is recognisable as the "Virgin of Solitude". In Goya's image, the statue is not carried vertically in processional triumph, rather it lies flat and undignified on the backs of the two almost crouched men. Shown horizontal, the object loses its aura, and becomes a mere everyday object. Art critics Victor Stoichita and Anna Maria Coderch wrote, "It is in effect a deposed, toppled image, stripped of its powers and its connotations." Goya is making a general statement: that the Church's attempts to support and restore the Bourbons were "illusory, since what they proposed was nothing more than the adoration of an empty form".The published edition of The Disasters of War ends as it begins; with the portrayal of a single, agonized figure. The last two plates show a woman wearing a wreath, intended as a personification of Spain, Truth, or the Constitution of 1812—which Ferdinand had rejected in 1814. In plate 79, Murió la Verdad (The Truth has died), she lies dead. In plate 80, Si resucitará? (Will she live again?), she is shown lying on her back with breasts exposed, bathed in a halo of light before a mob of "monks and monsters". In plate 82, Esto es lo verdadero (This is the true way), she is again bare-breasted and apparently represents peace and plenty. Here, she lies in front of a peasant.

Passage: Altar 1 is found at the base of Stela 1. It is rectangular in shape with carved molding on its side.Altar 2 is of unknown provenance, having been moved to outside the administrator's house on the San Isidro Piedra Parada plantation. It is 1.59 metres (63 in) long, about 0.9 metres (35 in) wide and about 0.5 metres (20 in) high. It represents an animal variously identified as a toad and a jaguar. The body of the animal was sculptured to form a hollow 85 centimetres (33 in) across and 26 centimetres (10 in) deep. The sculpture was broken into three pieces.Altar 3 is a roughly worked flat, circular altar about 1 metre (39 in) across and 0.3 metres (12 in) high. It was probably associated originally with a stela but its original location is unknown, it was moved near to the manager's house on the San Isidro Piedra Parada plantation.Altar 5 is a damaged plain circular altar associated with Stela 2.Altar 7 is near the southern edge of the plaza on Terrace 3, where it is one of five monuments in a line running east-west.Altar 8 is a plain monument associated with Stela 5, positioned on the west side of Structure 12.Altar 9 is a low four-legged throne placed in front of Structure 11.Altar 10 was associated with Stela 13 and was found on top of the large offering of ceramics associated with that stela and the royal tomb in Structure 7A. The monument was originally a throne with cylindrical supports that was reused as an altar in the Classic period.Altar 12 is carved in the early Maya style and archaeologists consider it to be an especially early example dating to the first part of the Late Preclassic. Because of the carvings on the upper face of the altar, it is supposed that the monument was originally erected as a vertical stela in the Late Preclassic, and was reused as a horizontal altar in the Classic. At this time 16 hieroglyphs were carved around the outer rim of the altar. The carving on the upper face of the altar represents a standing human figure portrayed in profile, facing left. The figure is flanked by two vertical series of four glyphs. A smaller profile figure is depicted facing the first figure, separated from it by one of the series of glyphs. The central figure is depicted standing upon a horizontal band representing the earth, the band is flanked by two earth monsters. Above the figure is a celestial band with part of the head of a sacred bird visible in the centre. The 16 glyphs on the rim of the monument are formed by anthropomorphic figures mixed with other elements.

Passage: In 1692, the Neapolitan painter Luca Giordano  became one of the few allowed to view paintings held in Philip IV's private apartments, and was greatly impressed by Las Meninas. Giordano described the work as the "theology of painting", and was inspired to paint A Homage to Velázquez (National Gallery, London). By the early 18th century his oeuvre was gaining international recognition, and later in the century British collectors ventured to Spain in search of acquisitions. Since the popularity of Italian art was then at its height among British connoisseurs, they concentrated on paintings that showed obvious Italian influence, largely ignoring others such as Las Meninas.An almost immediate influence can be seen in the two portraits by Mazo of subjects depicted in Las Meninas, which in some ways reverse the motif of that painting. Ten years later, in 1666, Mazo painted Infanta Margaret Theresa, who was then 15 and just about to leave Madrid to marry the Holy Roman Emperor. In the background are figures in two further receding doorways, one of which was the new King Charles (Margaret Theresa's brother), and another the dwarf Maribarbola. A Mazo portrait of the widowed Queen Mariana again shows, through a doorway in the Alcázar, the young king with dwarfs, possibly including Maribarbola, and attendants who offer him a drink.  Mazo's painting of The Family of the Artist also shows a composition similar to that of Las Meninas.
Francisco Goya etched a print of Las Meninas in 1778, and later used Velázquez's painting as the model for his Charles IV of Spain and His Family. As in Las Meninas, the royal family in Goya's work is apparently visiting the artist's studio. In both paintings the artist is shown working on a canvas, of which only the rear is visible. Goya, however, replaces the atmospheric and warm perspective of Las Meninas with what Pierre Gassier calls a sense of "imminent suffocation". Goya's royal family is presented on a "stage facing the public, while in the shadow of the wings the painter, with a grim smile, points and says: 'Look at them and judge for yourself!' "
The 19th-century British art collector William John Bankes travelled to Spain during the Peninsular War (1808–1814) and acquired a copy of Las Meninas painted by Mazo, which he believed to be an original preparatory oil sketch by Velázquez—although Velázquez did not usually paint studies. Bankes described his purchase as "the glory of my collection", noting that he had been "a long while in treaty for it and was obliged to pay a high price". The copy was admired throughout the 19th century in Britain, and is now in Kingston Lacy.  Recently there have been suggestions that it might be by Velázquez after all (see below).

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question:
Passage: A boy obsessed with football finds his life changing dramatically once he adds a little Samba. Danny plays on the football team at the all-boys Catholic school he attends in Belfast. Danny's three best friends, who also play on the team, all have different ambitions for their lives. Mickey wants to be a fashion designer so he can get rich and date supermodels. Gary wants to become a magician so he can get rich and meet beautiful women (and presumably saw them in half). And Spike likes to beat people up, so he wants to become a mercenary and do it for a living. But Danny dreams of making football his life.
The players Danny most admires are South Americans, such as Pele and Carlos Riga, who he feels have a special rhythm and flexibility. Wanting to add some of these qualities to his own game, Danny has an idea: he'll take Samba lessons, in the hope that dancing like a South American will help him play like a South American. To the surprise of himself and his friends, Danny turns out to be a pretty good Latin dancer and finds himself smitten with a student in his dance class, Lucy. However, Lucy happens to have a boyfriend, who is a fierce competitor on one of Danny's rival teams. The film also stars Brian Flanagan who plays an inspiring cameo role along with members of Celbridge Town Football Club.

Passage: Anna, a soon-to-be secondary school graduate, plans to go traveling for a year before attending university, much to the displeasure of her father Tony. Her friends are dealing with their own issues: her best friend John is secretly in love with her, Chris is struggling with a class assignment, and Steph is trying to get her social justice reporting past the tyrannical vice principal Mr. Savage ("Break Away"). Nick, Anna's macho ex-boyfriend, is also making her life difficult ("Hollywood Ending"). The night of the school Christmas show, in which Chris's girlfriend Lisa is performing ("It's That Time of Year"), Anna and John are working in the local bowling alley and Chris and Steph have gone to film for Steph's story. During this time, a zombie infection starts spreading and Lisa, Tony, Savage, and Chris's grandmother are stranded in the school. Anna and John bond over her post-graduation plans on their ways home from work.
The next morning, Anna and John leave for the school, completely oblivious to the zombie chaos around them ("Turning My Life Around"). When they encounter a zombie dressed as a snowman, Anna decapitates him with a seesaw. Figuring it will be too dangerous to go home or to the school, they go to the bowling alley where they meet Steph and Chris, who had taken shelter there. Steph finds out that an army evacuation is coming to the school, so the group plans to go there once it is safe. Anna and Steph find the zombified cleaner and Steph kills her, alerting a group of zombified bowlers to break in. The group kills them all after a bloody fight and realise that getting to their loved ones will be difficult ("Human Voice").

Passage: Aging 1970s rocker Danny Collins cannot give up his hard-living ways – but then his manager, Frank Grubman, uncovers a 40-year-old undelivered letter to him from John Lennon. After reading the letter, Danny decides to change his way of life. He travels to New Jersey to attempt to connect for the first time with his grown son, Tom Donnelly, whom he sired from a casual relationship with a woman who died 10 years before. Tom has a wife, Samantha and seven-year old daughter, Hope.
Seeking a new start, Danny forswears touring and checks into a Hilton hotel in New Jersey, much to the delight of the young staff. He begins to woo the hotel manager, Mary.
Tom initially rejects the father he believes abandoned him, but Danny persists, getting Hope, who has ADHD, into an exclusive school for children with special needs. He learns Tom has what doctors say may be terminal leukemia, inherited from his mother, and begins to attend doctor's visits with him. Tom's dislike of his father gradually gives way to the need for his support.
Inspired by his feelings for Mary and his happiness at having a family, Danny begins to write new songs. He books a one-night performance at a small club. When the audience demands he play his old material, however, Danny loses his nerve and gives a rote performance. Ashamed, he resumes doing drugs, damaging his relationship with Mary and his family. Tom confronts him, causing Danny to angrily reveal Tom's leukemia diagnosis, something Samantha had not been aware of. Tom, feeling betrayed, tells Danny never to bother his family again.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question:
Passage: On an island near Antarctica, a male penguin named Peter sees a female named Polly, and attempts to woo her. First he offers her an ice cream made of snow and icicle, which she accepts. Next, he tries catching her a fish, but only succeeds in catching a pufferfish. Polly accepts it graciously, but when she swallows it, she begins inflating and deflating repeatedly until Peter makes her spit out the fish, which then returns to water.
Peter shrugs in embarrassment, but, feeling humiliated, Polly slaps him and leaves to swim on a small iceberg. On the shore, Peter kicks himself for letting her get away, but then notices a sharkfin moving towards Polly's iceberg. He squawks a danger warning to her, but Polly ignores him, thinking that he's just begging for forgiveness that he won't get. Soon enough, the shark attacks Polly, who swims away in panic. Needing to act, Peter picks up a stick and charges out to help.
The shark chases Polly around the bay for several minutes. When it looks like he has her cornered, Peter arrives and clobbers him on the nose. Enraged, the shark starts chasing after Peter. After several minutes of fighting and swimming away from the shark, Peter tries to escape by climbing up onto a cliff with a boulder on top. Peter unintentionally dislodges the boulder, which falls into the shark's mouth, who then swallows it. Due to the boulder's weight, the shark sinks to the bottom of the bay. The shark struggles until he's too tired to move. Passing fish begin to poke fun at him.
Meanwhile, Polly and Peter reconcile and fall in love, thus Peter's wooing succeeded. They cuddle, and their bodies form a heart-shaped silhouette on the horizon.

Passage: The cartoon opens with an introduction of Petunia Pig; Petunia is shown as nervous, tripping on her lines and being unable to pronounce them correctly while on stage, leading an off-screen announcer to quietly tell her not to get excited. This causes her to go into an explosive rant and then the curtain closes on her and the main part of the cartoon starts.
Porky is shown buying some flowers, candy, and then eventually a diamond ring. He proceeds to go over to Petunia's house and knock on the door, then Petunia goes to answer the door with her spoiled dog, Fluffnums. When she sees Porky, she is disgusted to see him so she disdainfully tells him to go away. This causes him to leave crying out of sadness and he then walks away, but Fluffnums sees the candy Porky has and alerts her to this fact.
Petunia proceeds to run out after Porky and take him into her house, where she rips open the candy container and starts eating the candy. Porky tries to help himself to the candy several times but is constantly harassed by Fluffnums, who snarls and growls at him each time he tries to reach for the candy box. Porky finally gets a piece of candy, winks at the audience, and then finds out that Fluffnums ate it. He eventually tries to propose to Petunia, but as he is starting to do so, Fluffnums pulls a mean-spirited trick on Porky by pulling the rug out from under him. The fickle and selfish Petunia laughs at him, causing Porky to leave the house and walk off in shame. He proceeds to write a suicide note and tries to hang himself from a tree, but the branch the rope is on snaps due to Porky's weight, knocking him out and causing him to go into a dreamlike state.

Passage: In the Paris Zoo, Penelope Pussycat is starving and tries to beg the local zookeeper to give her some of the lions' food but he gently, though firmly, refuses. She then deliberately paints a white stripe on her back, disguising herself as a skunk, so as to be fed. The ploy works, but unfortunately for Penelope, she is discovered by Pepé, who immediately mistakes her for "le petite femme skunk" and pursues her affections.
Suddenly however, Pepé remembers his plan of a rendezvous. He sets up a makeshift house, serving Penelope champagne. She escapes Pepé, who (of course,) pursues, believing her to be playing the "lovers' chase", to which he obliges.
While looking for Penelope, he (unintentionally) scares off a French Poodle in the process. He later finds Penelope near a corner, and she hits him with a mallet. Pepé recovered from the blow and called her a "Flirt."
Pepé follows his "lover" into a tunnel of love, but at the other side, he is smooching and hugging a dumbfounded man, mistaking him for Penelope. Once Pepé realizes he got the wrong person, he angrily declares that the man shall hear from his "second", to which the man (mechanically) replies by joining the French Foreign Legion and saluting before fainting.
Penelope climbs a wall, running into Pepé once more, who acts like Maurice Chevalier, singing "Babyface" in an attempt to woo her.
When that didn't quite work, he pursues her across Paris and caught her, and then Pepé dances with Penelope in a forceful French Apache dance, but she instinctively bashes him over the head with a club. Pepé was seeing multiple Penelopes in a daze, saying that one may remain, while the rest of them, another day. But, just as the chase was about to resume, the zookeeper then finally catches Pepé, who regretfully waves goodbye to Penelope, and is soon put back in his cage. It may turn out to be a headache for Pepé, but he closes the cartoon saying with a simple, "Vive l'amour.".

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question:
Passage: Between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm the guards enacted a strategy whereby the police officers, backed by the bayonets of the soldiers, advanced to the crowd and arrested each a man, who was then taken into the station, disarmed, and held there. The strategy was largely successful, and by 11:00 pm the area around the station was mostly cleared, though sporadic gunfire could be heard throughout the night. Between 165 and 200 were detained in total, and the most violent of the captives were removed and taken to the police station. The news reported that four, including one police officer, were injured in the exchange, and several who resisted arrest were beaten severely.At the foundry near the Carey Street Bridge, a crowd of more than 100 gathered and threatened to set fire to the area. A contingent of the 5th under Captain Lipscomb arrived, and a volley fired over the heads of the crowd was sufficient to dissuade the crowd. An unsuccessful attempt was also made to burn a B&O transportation barge at Fell's Point. The news reported that 16 were arrested in a confrontation between citizens and the police at Lee and Eutaw, and that during the night, three separate attempts were made to set fire the 6th Regiment armory, but all were frustrated by the remaining garrison there.Just before midnight, 120–135 marines arrived at the station and reported to the governor, who ordered them to set about capturing the leaders of the mob. Governor Carroll telegraphed and advised President Hayes that order had been restored in the city.
Between 2:00 am and 3:00 am on Sunday morning, July 22, the peace was again broken and fire alarms began to ring throughout the city. To the west, at the Mount Clare Shops of the B&O, a 37-car train of coal and oil had been set on fire. Police, firefighters, and thousands of citizens flocked to the scene. A contingent of 50 marines was dispatched to the area to provide assistance. The cars which had not yet caught fire were detached from those burning, and by the time the flames were extinguished between seven and nine cars had been burned. Between $11,000 and $12,000 in damage was sustained.At 4:00 am another alarm sounded: the planing mills and lumber yard of J. Turner & Cate near the Philadelphia Wilmington & Baltimore rail depot, had been set on fire. The entire property, extending over a full city block, was destroyed. Realizing the severity of the situation, the firefighters concentrated their efforts on trying to save the surrounding structures.According to news reports, the first passenger trains left the city at 9:00 am, and continued running throughout the day. Around 10:00 am, General W. S. Hancock arrived and was followed by 360–400 federal troops from New York and Fort Monroe, who relieved those guarding Camden Station. They brought with them two 12 pounder artillery pieces. From that point on, the men of the 5th and the federal troops took turns guarding the station.

Passage: Just after midnight on 3 January, 200 police officers from the City of London and Metropolitan forces cordoned off the area around 100 Sidney Street. Armed officers were placed at number 111, directly opposite number 100, and throughout the night the residents of the houses on the block were roused and evacuated. Wensley woke the ground floor tenants at number 100 and asked them to fetch Gershon, claiming that she was needed by her sick husband. When Gershon appeared she was grabbed by the police and taken to the City of London police headquarters; the ground floor lodgers also evacuated. Number 100 was now empty of all residents, apart from Svaars and Sokoloff, neither of whom seemed to be aware of the evacuation.The police's operating procedure—and the law which governed their actions—meant they were unable to open fire without being fired upon first. This, along with the structure of the building, which had a narrow, winding stairwell up which police would have to pass, meant any approach to the gang members was too perilous to attempt. It was decided to wait until dawn before taking any action. At about 7:30 am a policeman knocked on the door of number 100, which elicited no response; stones were then thrown at the window to wake the men. Svaars and Sokoloff appeared at the window and opened fire at the police. A police sergeant was wounded in the chest: he was evacuated under fire across the rooftops, and taken to the London Hospital. Some members of the police returned fire, but their guns were only effective over shorter ranges, and proved ineffective against the comparatively advanced automatic weapons of Svaars and Sokoloff.By 9:00 am it was apparent that the two gunmen possessed superior weapons and ample ammunition. The police officers in charge on the scene, Superintendent Mulvaney and Chief Superintendent Stark, contacted Assistant Commissioner Major Frederick Wodehouse at Scotland Yard. He telephoned the Home Office and obtained permission from Churchill to bring in a detachment of Scots Guards, who were stationed at the Tower of London. It was the first time that the police had requested military assistance in London to deal with an armed siege. Twenty-one volunteer marksmen from the Guards arrived at about 10:00 am and took firing positions at each end of the street and in the houses opposite. The shooting continued without either side gaining any advantage.

Passage: Around 6:30 pm the soldiers of the 6th Regiment began assembling. Their armory, located on Front Street across from the Phoenix Shot Tower, consisted of the second and third floors of a warehouse, with the only exit being a narrow stairway through which no more than two men could walk abreast.The men were met with jeers by a crowd of 2,000 to 4,000. This escalated into paving stones thrown through the door and windows of the building. Soldiers who subsequently arrived were beaten and driven away. Additional police were sent for in hopes of clearing the way and relieving the troops of the need to use force against the crowd, but those who arrived were unable to effect any order, and were forced to shelter in the armory along with the soldiers.Shortly after 8:00 pm, Colonel Peters ordered three companies of 120 men of the 6th to move as commanded by the governor and General Herbert to Camden Station. As they exited, they were assaulted by stones from the crowd, believing those of the 6th Regiment were armed only with blank cartridges. The troops returned fire, with live ammunition as they were equipped, and the frightened crowd retreated west across Fayette Street Bridge.Given the ongoing clashes, the men of the 6th Regiment, Company B, being the last of the formation to leave the armory, marched south, by way of Front Street, and then west along Baltimore Street, in order to avoid the crowds.The crowd regained their resolve and, as the body marched near Harrison and Frederick streets, they were attacked in the rear and made to halt by the pressing of the crowd. Without orders, some soldiers fired on the crowd, killing one and wounding between one and three. The crowd shrank back and the soldiers were allowed continue until they had advanced to the offices of the Baltimore American newspaper, near Holliday Street, where an order was given to halt and two volleys fired into the crowd. They were forced to halt a third time as they turned onto Charles Street, and again fired on the crowd near Light Street. There two men and one boy were killed. From there they followed Charles to Camden Street and on to the station.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question:
Passage: Around 1880, two young British officers arrive to join a regiment in India. One, Lieutenant Drake, from a middle-class background, is extremely eager to fit in while the other, Lieutenant Millington, the son of a general, is keen to get out as soon as possible and deliberately antagonizes his fellow officers. The two newcomers learn the traditions of the regiment, one of which is a mess game in which they chase a wooden pig on wheels, attempting to pierce its anus with their swords.
Mrs Scarlett, the flirtatious and attractive widow of a captain who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, is a constant presence in the regiment.  One night at a mess dance, Millington gets drunk and tries to seduce Mrs Scarlett in the garden. She repels him, but moments later runs back into the mess wounded and in shock, claiming the culprit was Millington. An informal court martial -more a mock trial than anything else- is organized with Drake ordered to be Millington's defending officer. Although Drake is pressured by his superior officer to plead guilty for Millington and close the case quickly, he begins to challenge the orders in order to give the defendant a fair trial. Drake learns from an Indian servant that another widow suffered a similar attack with a sword six months earlier, before he and Millington joined. After irrefutable evidence, Mrs Scarlett finally admits it was not Millington who attacked her but will not say who the culprit is. Millington, now indisputably proved innocent, is welcomed back by his brother officers; but Drake, disgusted by the truth he's uncovered, resigns. One officer knows who the culprit is and, hiding Drake in the shadows so he may witness what is to take place, confronts the guilty man privately in the final scene.

Passage: Around noon, General Henry Abbot arrived at President Street with a battalion of 99 to 114 engineers. As the group advanced toward the armory of the 6th Regiment where they were to be quartered, they were met by a crowd of 500. Jeers from the crowd turned to missiles until one soldier, Private Corcoran, was struck in the head and wounded. Abbot gave orders that his men were to halt and fix bayonets, at which point the crowd scattered.Throughout the day and the previous, as many as 500 new special police were sworn in, doubling the size of the police force. Each was provided with a star, a revolver and espantoon. The recently arrived regulars brought the garrison of federal troops in the city to between 700 and 800. The vessels Powhatan and Swatara had also been ordered to the city, along with their 500 marines.News reports recalled court held that day in the southern district, where 195 charges of riot and 17 charges of drunkenness were resolved. That night the city was quiet. A telegram was dispatched from Adjutant General Edward D. Townsend to General Hancock, who had just arrived in the city earlier that day. He was directed to move his men to Pittsburgh, where riots were ongoing.

Passage: Dodo Doubleday has been inexplicably reduced from first sergeant to staff sergeant and has resumed being orderly to his regimental commander Colonel Barkley.  Sergeant Ames is still a buck sergeant who hates Dodo because he advanced to outrank Ames within Dodo's first 24 hours in the army.  Dodo's former comrade in arms Charlie Cobb is also a buck sergeant.  As both Cobb and Ames are the best marksman in the regiment but constantly boast of their prowess, Colonel Barkley seeks to find an expert who can outshoot them.
Though possessing a photographic memory that enabled him to advance from private to senior non-commissioned officer in less than 24 hours, Dodo has one weakness: though his book knowledge enables him to give lectures on weapons disassembly and ballistics, he is gun shy and an incompetent marksman. After nearly shooting several of his fellow soldiers on the pistol range, with the actual target being the safest place to hide, Dodo is ordered to go into the woods to practice.  There his missed shots impress the picnicking colonel and his daughter Betty when Dodo accidentally shoots a hawk through the eye whilst in flight and after the colonel catches a fish who breaks the line and is in the process of rolling back into the water, an accidental discharge from Dodo's pistol shoots the fish through his eye.  Eager to deflate the boasting Ames and Cobb, the colonel bets a month's pay that Dodo can outshoot Ames and Cobb.
Ames and Cobb's hatred of Dodo increases when in the interests of promoting democracy in the United States Army, Betty invites Dodo to dinner at the colonel's quarters, but Ames and Cobb believe they have been invited as well.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question: Passage: Amyntas III was forced to flee his kingdom in either 393 or 383 BC (based on conflicting accounts), owing to a massive invasion by the Illyrian Dardani led by Bardylis. The pretender to the throne Argaeus ruled in his absence, yet Amyntas III eventually returned to his kingdom with the aid of Thessalian allies. Amyntas III was also nearly overthrown by the forces of the Chalcidian city of Olynthos, but with the aid of Teleutias, brother of the Spartan king Agesilaus II, the Macedonians forced Olynthos to surrender and dissolve their Chalcidian League in 379 BC.Alexander II (r. 370 – 368 BC), son of Eurydice I and Amyntas III, succeeded his father and immediately invaded Thessaly to wage war against the tagus (supreme Thessalian military leader) Alexander of Pherae, capturing the city of Larissa. The Thessalians, desiring to remove both Alexander II and Alexander of Pherae as their overlords, appealed to Pelopidas of Thebes for aid; he succeeded in recapturing Larissa and, in the peace agreement arranged with Macedonia, received aristocratic hostages including Alexander II's brother and future king Philip II (r. 359–336 BC– ). When Alexander was assassinated by his brother-in-law Ptolemy of Aloros, the latter acted as an overbearing regent for Perdiccas III (r. 368 – 359 BC), younger brother of Alexander II, who eventually had Ptolemy executed when reaching the age of majority in 365 BC. The remainder of Perdiccas III's reign was marked by political stability and financial recovery. However, an Athenian invasion led by Timotheus, son of Conon, managed to capture Methone and Pydna, and an Illyrian invasion led by Bardylis succeeded in killing Perdiccas III and 4,000 Macedonian troops in battle.

Passage: When Alexander the Great died at Babylon in 323 BC, his mother Olympias immediately accused Antipater and his faction of poisoning him, although there is no evidence to confirm this. With no official heir apparent, the Macedonian military command split, with one side proclaiming Alexander's half-brother Philip III Arrhidaeus (r. 323 – 317 BC) as king and the other siding with the infant son of Alexander and Roxana, Alexander IV (r. 323 – 309 BC). Except for the Euboeans and Boeotians, the Greeks also immediately rose up in a rebellion against Antipater known as the Lamian War (323–322 BC). When Antipater was defeated at the 323 BC Battle of Thermopylae, he fled to Lamia where he was besieged by the Athenian commander Leosthenes. A Macedonian army led by Leonnatus rescued Antipater by lifting the siege. Antipater defeated the rebellion, yet his death in 319 BC left a power vacuum wherein the two proclaimed kings of Macedonia became pawns in a power struggle between the diadochi, the former generals of Alexander's army.A council of the army convened in Babylon immediately after Alexander's death, naming Philip III as king and the chiliarch Perdiccas as his regent. Antipater, Antigonus Monophthalmus, Craterus, and Ptolemy formed a coalition against Perdiccas in a civil war initiated by Ptolemy's seizure of the hearse of Alexander the Great. Perdiccas was assassinated in 321 BC by his own officers during a failed campaign in Egypt against Ptolemy, where his march along the Nile River resulted in the drowning of 2,000 of his men. Although Eumenes of Cardia managed to kill Craterus in battle, this had little to no effect on the outcome of the 321 BC Partition of Triparadisus in Syria where the victorious coalition settled the issue of a new regency and territorial rights. Antipater was appointed as regent over the two kings. Before Antipater died in 319 BC, he named the staunch Argead loyalist Polyperchon as his successor, passing over his own son Cassander and ignoring the right of the king to choose a new regent (since Philip III was considered mentally unstable), in effect bypassing the council of the army as well.Forming an alliance with Ptolemy, Antigonus, and Lysimachus, Cassander had his officer Nicanor capture the Munichia fortress of Athens' port town Piraeus in defiance of Polyperchon's decree that Greek cities should be free of Macedonian garrisons, sparking the Second War of the Diadochi (319–315 BC). Given a string of military failures by Polyperchon, in 317 BC, Philip III, by way of his politically engaged wife Eurydice II of Macedon, officially replaced him as regent with Cassander. Afterwards, Polyperchon desperately sought the aid of Olympias in Epirus. A joint force of Epirotes, Aetolians, and Polyperchon's troops invaded Macedonia and forced the surrender of Philip III and Eurydice's army, allowing Olympias to execute the king and force his queen to commit suicide. Olympias then had Nicanor and dozens of other Macedonian nobles killed, but by the spring of 316 BC, Cassander had defeated her forces, captured her, and placed her on trial for murder before sentencing her to death.Cassander married Philip II's daughter Thessalonike and briefly extended Macedonian control into Illyria as far as Epidamnos. By 313 BC, it was retaken by the Illyrian king Glaucias of Taulantii. By 316 BC, Antigonus had taken the territory of Eumenes and managed to eject Seleucus Nicator from his Babylonian satrapy, leading Cassander, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus to issue a joint ultimatum to Antigonus in 315 BC for him to surrender various territories in Asia. Antigonus promptly allied with Polyperchon, now based in Corinth, and issued an ultimatum of his own to Cassander, charging him with murder for executing Olympias and demanding that he hand over the royal family, King Alexander IV and the queen mother Roxana. The conflict that followed lasted until the winter of 312/311 BC, when a new peace settlement recognized Cassander as general of Europe, Antigonus as "first in Asia", Ptolemy as general of Egypt, and Lysimachus as general of Thrace. Cassander had Alexander IV and Roxana put to death in the winter of 311/310 BC, and by 306–305 BC, the diadochi were declared kings of their respective territories.

Passage: The location of the Acra is important for understanding how events unfolded in Jerusalem during the struggle between Maccabean and Seleucid forces. This has been the subject of debate among modern scholars. The most detailed ancient description of the nature and location of the Acra is found in Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, where it is described as residing in the Lower City, upon a hill overlooking the Temple enclosure:
...and when he had overthrown the city walls, he built a citadel [Greek: Acra] in the lower part of the city, for the place was high, and overlooked the temple; on which account he fortified it with high walls and towers, and put into it a garrison of Macedonians. However, in that citadel dwelt the impious and wicked part of the multitude, from whom it proved that the citizens suffered many and sore calamities.
The location of the "lower part of the city", elsewhere referred to as the "Lower City", at the time of Josephus (1st century CE) is accepted to be Jerusalem's south-eastern hill, the original urban center traditionally known as the City of David. Lying to the south of the Temple Mount, however, the area exposed today is significantly lower than the Mount itself. The top of the Mount is approximately 30 metres (98 ft) above the ground level at the southern retaining wall of the later Herodian-era expansion of the Temple enclosure. The elevation decreases to the south of this point. Josephus, a native of Jerusalem, would have been well aware of this discrepancy, yet is nevertheless able to explain it away by describing how Simon had razed both the Acra and the hill on which it had stood. Archaeological research south of the Temple Mount, however, has failed to locate any evidence for such large-scale quarrying. On the contrary, excavations in the region have uncovered substantial evidence of habitation from the beginning of the first millennium BCE down to Roman times, casting doubt on the suggestion that during Hellenistic times the area was significantly higher than it was at the time of Josephus or that a large hill had been cleared away. This had led many researchers to disregard Josephus' account and his placing of the Acra, and suggest several alternate locations. Since 1841, when Edward Robinson proposed the area near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the site of the Acra, at least nine different locations in and around the Old City of Jerusalem have been put forward.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question:
Passage: Matthew is an American exchange student who has come to Paris to study French. While at the Cinémathèque Française protesting the firing of Henri Langlois, he meets the free-spirited twins Théo and Isabelle. The three bond over a shared love of film.
After dinner with their parents, Théo and Isabelle offer Matthew the chance to stay with them while their parents are on a trip. Matthew accepts, considering them his first French friends.
Matthew becomes suspicious of their relationship after seeing them sleeping nude together; he soon discovers that they accept nudity and sexuality liberally. After Théo loses at a trivia game, Isabelle sentences him to masturbate to a Marlene Dietrich poster in front of them. After Matthew loses at another game, he is seduced to take Isabelle's virginity. The two then become lovers.
Matthew begins to accept Théo and Isabelle's sexuality and his time living with them soon becomes idyllic. The three re-enact a famous scene from Bande à part by "breaking the world record for running through the Louvre", and Matthew and Théo engage in playful arguments about Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, as well as the subject of Maoism, which Théo fervently believes in.
During this time Matthew begins to pursue a relationship with Isabelle, separate from Théo. Matthew and Isabelle leave the house and go on a regular date, which she has not experienced before. Théo retaliates by inviting a companion up to his room, upsetting Isabelle. She distances herself from both Théo and Matthew, only to find them next to each other on Théo's bed when an argument between the two turns erotic.

Passage: In the fictional country Soleil, a brutal police state at war with Frodan, the government sets up a criminal, Hector, who walks into a police trap. Hector is captured alive at the behest of the police chief and is executed live on television after a brief show trial. Bone, who has recently lost his job at a cryogenics facility for not showing the proper respect to authority, meets Helen, a woman forced into prostitution at the government-sanctioned whorehouse. They are immediately attracted to each other and begin an illegal romance despite several close calls with the police. Bone's friend Creon becomes jealous of their relationship and demands that Bone share Helen with him; disgusted, Bone refuses, and they eventually come to blows over Creon's behavior.
After he observes Bone and Helen engage in petty theft, a mysterious man named Jason offers them passage to Frodan if they will steal records from a secure facility disguised as a hospital. Although suspicious, they accept and successfully deliver the information to Jason, who attempts to delay their reward and talk them into further criminal acts. Frustrated and needing money, Bone and Helen rob a bank, quickly becoming the most wanted criminals in Soleil. Creon attempts to blackmail Helen, but she dismisses his threats; before Creon can attack her, Bone saves her and tells Creon that he would kill him if he weren't leaving Soleil so soon. After losing faith in Jason's promises, Bone and Helen recruit J.D. and Alexi to help them escape.

Passage: Bernard Lawrence is an American journalist stationed in Paris, France. A playboy, he has devised an ingenious system for juggling three different girlfriends: by dating stewardesses who are assigned to international routes on non-intersecting flight schedules, only one woman is in the country at any given time. He has their comings and goings timetabled with such precision that he can drop off his British United Airways girlfriend for her outgoing flight and pick up his inbound Lufthansa girlfriend on the very same trip to the airport—while his Air France girlfriend is in a holding pattern elsewhere.
With help from his long-suffering housekeeper Bertha (Thelma Ritter)—who swaps the appropriate photos and food in and out of the apartment to match the incoming girlfriend—none of the ladies is aware of each other's presence in the apartment. They regard Lawrence's flat as their "home" during their Paris layovers.
Bernard is so happy with his life in Paris that he intends to turn down an imminent promotion that would require him to move to New York City.
Bernard's life is turned upside down when his girlfriends' airlines begin putting new, state-of-the-art aircraft into service. These faster airplanes change all of the existing route schedules and allow the stewardesses to spend more time in Paris. Most alarming for Bernard, his three girlfriends will now all be in Paris at the same time.
Robert Reed, a fellow journalist and an old acquaintance, complicates Bernard's life even further when he arrives in town and is unable to find a hotel room. He insists on staying in Bernard's apartment for a few days. When he sees Bernard's living situation, he schemes to take over Bernard's apartment, his girls, his housekeeper, and Bernard's Paris job while manipulating him into taking the new job in New York.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.


Question:
Passage: Johnny and girlfriend Frankie are performers on a Mississippi River riverboat, which also has a casino. Johnny is a compulsive gambler who is down on his luck and in debt.
Johnny and his friend Cully, a musician and composer, visit a gypsy camp to get his fortune told. A lady reads tea leaves and tells Johnny that he will soon meet a red-haired woman who will bring him luck.
Back on the boat, Johnny and Cully promptly encounter Nellie Bly, their boss Clint Braden's on-again, off-again girlfriend. Nellie has just caught Braden seducing another singer, Mitzi. Since she has red hair, Nellie is persuaded by Johnny to touch his chips for luck. After he wins, Johnny is convinced that the gypsy must be correct.
Frankie finds out and becomes jealous, as does Johnny's boss. In a bit of musical theatre, Frankie shoots Johnny for dancing with Nellie Bly while singing Cully's latest song. A Broadway recruiter sees the riverboat show and buys the rights to this new song, suggesting that Frankie and Johnny should work together with him in New York City.
Landing in New Orleans, the musical cast and riverboat crew attend a masked ball. Frankie, Nellie and Mitzi all rent the same Madame Pompadour costume.
Johnny is eager for the luck of redhead Nellie to win more money, contrary to Frankie's expressed wishes. Being masked and in costume, Frankie and Nellie scheme to switch places to test Johnny's lucky-redhead theory. Johnny wins $10,000 at roulette, but when he kisses the woman he believes to be Nellie, he discovers the switch. Frankie is furious and throws all the winnings out of a window, into the street.
Blackie, a dim-witted stooge who works for the boss, hears Braden drunkenly complain about how he has lost Nellie. Thinking he can be of help, Blackie switches the blank cartridge in Frankie's stage gun for a real bullet.

Passage: Zandalee Martin is a young boutique store owner living in New Orleans who is sexually frustrated and feeling unfulfilled with her marriage to Thierry Martin, and eventually gets tangled in a passionate, sensual and torrid iadulterous affair with her husband's mysterious and free spirited old friend Johnny Collins. Zandalee and Thierry's marriage has hit a snag and seems to be eroding due to his lack of passion.
Zan needs to explore, while Thierry wants to withdraw, and has become more and more distant and impotent in their relationship. He used to be a poet, but now has taken over the family's communications business after the death of his father. As time goes on, Thierry has to sell the business and become basically a (vice president) figurehead. He is emotionally adrift as his dreams give way to disillusionment.
Johnny, an artist painter by trade, has been working for Thierry's business to help support his paintings. His only religion is self-gratification. Johnny also sells and mules cocaine for a local drug dealer as another source of income for himself. Having not seen each other in a while, the two run into each other at a bachelor's party. After the party, Thierry brings Johnny home to meet Zandalee and his grandmother Tatta. While talking about old times, Johnny offers to paint a portrait of Thierry at their home.

Passage: Unlucky Bernie Lootz has little positive going for him: he lives in a dreary place—a  studio apartment in a run-down motel  near the Las Vegas Strip; he can't recall the last time he had physical contact with a woman; he's indebted to the Shangri-La casino boss Shelly Kaplow, who years earlier cured him of a gambling habit by breaking his kneecap. Kaplow had also paid Lootz's casino debts, and Bernie has been working off that large debt to Shelly for several years and the debt is nearly paid off.
Lootz is weary of the casino business, and tells Kaplow he is leaving Las Vegas soon. His future success as a luck "cooler" is changed when cocktail waitress Natalie Belisario seemingly takes an interest in him, and his luck—and that of those around him—takes a turn for the better. What Bernie doesn't know yet is that Shelly has paid Natalie to seduce him into staying and working at the Shangri-La. What Shelly doesn't know is that Natalie actually has fallen in love with Bernie, and vice versa. Additional complications arise when Shelly, a relative old-timer who resents the Disneyfication of Vegas, resists the efforts of new Shangri-La owner advisers, including Ivy League graduate and condescending upstart Larry Sokolov, to update the casino hotel property and bring it into the 21st century.
Lootz also learns his seldom-seen adult son is back in town, and, with his wife, is interfering with the operations at the Shangri-La. Though Shelly still has the backing of certain mob associates, such as gangster Nicky Fingers, the growing power of the new young Ivy League casino owners is lessening his power grip on the casino and the business he truly loves.

Instruction: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.