TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you're given a question, along with three passages, 1, 2, and 3. Your job is to determine which passage can be used to answer the question by searching for further information using terms from the passage. Indicate your choice as 1, 2, or 3.
PROBLEM: Question: How many members did the Boston Symphony Orchestra have when Lilacs for voice and orchestra was premiered by the group? Passage 1:Whitman's poem appears in the Broadway musical Street Scene (1946) which was the collaboration of composer Kurt Weill, poet and lyricist Langston Hughes, and playwright Elmer Rice. Rice adapted his 1929 Pulitzer prize-winning play of the same name for the musical. In the play, which premiered in New York City in January 1947, the poem's third stanza is recited, followed by duet, "Don't Forget The Lilac Bush", inspired by Whitman's verse. Weill received the first Tony Award for Best Original Score for this work African-American composer George T. Walker, Jr. (born 1922) set Whitman's poem in his composition Lilacs for voice and orchestra which was awarded the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The work, described as "passionate, and very American," with "a beautiful and evocative lyrical quality" using Whitman's words, was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on February 1, 1996. Composer George Crumb (born 1929) set the Death Carol in his 1979 work Apparition (1979), an eight-part song cycle for soprano and amplified piano.
 Passage 2:At the 1989 election, Buchanan successfully transferred to the newly recreated seat of Ashburton, with her replacement in Pilbara, Larry Graham, retaining that seat for Labor. The re-elected Dowding government persisted only until February 1990, when it was replaced by the Lawrence government following Dowding's forced resignation. New premier Carmen Lawrence elevated Buchanan to the ministry as Minister for Works and Services and Minister for Regional Development. She was also made assistant minister to Lawrence in her capacity as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. However, the regional development portfolio was abolished in December 1990, and Buchanan lost her remaining portfolios in February 1991, as part of a ministerial reshuffle prompted by an internal spill motion. Jeff Carr and Gavan Troy were also removed as ministers, with Carr consequently resigning from parliament. Buchanan herself resigned to sit as an independent on 1 February 1991, before the new ministry was sworn in four days later. She consequently became the first woman in the Parliament of Western Australia to sit as an independent. Buchanan resigned due to ill health just over a year later, in March 1992, and died at the end of that month, aged 55. She had married George Maitland Buchanan in April 1957, with whom she had two daughters. Her resignation prompted a by-election in Ashburton, which was won by the Labor candidate Fred Riebeling.
 Passage 3:A native of Surrey, British Columbia, Wotherspoon was selected by the Portland Winter Hawks in the second round of the 2008 Western Hockey League (WHL) Bantam Draft. He made his WHL debut as a 15-year-old in 2008–09, appearing in four games for Portland, then played four full seasons between 2009 and 2013. In his WHL career, he has appeared in 239 games in his WHL career and scored 17 goals along with 65 assists. With the Winterhawks, he appeared in the WHL championship series in three consecutive years as Portland lost the final in 2011 and 2012 to the Kootenay Ice and Edmonton Oil Kings, respectively, before finally winning the Ed Chynoweth Cup championship in 2013 by defeating Edmonton. Wotherspoon was also named to the WHL's Western Conference second All-Star Team in 2012–13. Wotherspoon scored three points in five games at the 2013 Memorial Cup, however Portland lost the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) championship game, the Memorial Cup, to the Halifax Mooseheads, 6–4. During the season, Wotherspoon was also a member of the Canadian junior team, recording two points in six games at the 2013 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.


SOLUTION: 1

PROBLEM: Question: What were jet fuel prices in 1975? Passage 1:In addition to withdrawing from the prestigious long-haul routes to New York and Los Angeles after only 18 months, other specific measures the airline took at the time to ensure its survival included dropping all scheduled flights to Belfast, Copenhagen, Gibraltar, Ibiza, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca and Tunis, indefinitely suspending scheduled services on the Glasgow—Southampton route as well as cutting the number of frequencies on the Gatwick—Glasgow and Gatwick—Edinburgh routes from six to four daily round trips. Two surplus aircraft were leased out to Air Malta and Austrian Airlines respectively for the duration of the 1975 summer timetable period. Another aircraft was stationed at West Berlin's Tegel Airport during the month of July of that year to fulfill a short-term charter contract to carry Turkish migrant workers to and from Istanbul on behalf of a local tour operator. BCal also decided to increase its 707 freighter fleet from one to four aircraft and to acquire a five-seater Piper Aztec to serve the rapidly growing executive charter market. These changes left BCal with 25 operational aircraft for the 1975 summer season. To reduce operating costs further, the airline decided to contract out its scheduled operations between Gatwick and Le Touquet to BIA. The reason for replacing BCal's One-Eleven 200 jet aircraft on this route with that airline's Herald turboprops at the beginning of the 1975 summer timetable period was the high price of jet fuel, which had made BCal's own jet aircraft operations uneconomic.
 Passage 2:A goalkeeper, Smeulders began his career as a youth with Orient. He was unable to displace the number 1 shirt from Ray Goddard and John Jackson and made just a handful of League Cup appearances before departing the Os in 1979. To revive his stalled career, Smeulders began the first of three spells with Bournemouth in 1979. After failing to break into the first team, Smeulders dropped into non-league football in January 1981 with Trowbridge Town, moving on to Weymouth and then back to Bournemouth in January 1984. This time he did establish himself in the first team, making 75 league appearances and setting a then-club record seven consecutive clean sheets, before moving to Torquay United in 1986. After failing to hold down a first team place and spending time away from Plainmoor on loan, Smeulders returned to Bournemouth for the third time in 1987. He again failed to hold down a regular place and dropped back into non-league football in 1989. Smeulders retired at age 38, due to a damaged knee.
 Passage 3:John Montagu was born in 1718, the son of Edward Montagu, Viscount Hinchingbrooke. His father died when John was four, leaving him as his heir. His mother soon remarried and he had little further contact with her. He succeeded his grandfather as Earl of Sandwich in 1729, at the age of ten. He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and spent some time travelling, initially going on the Grand Tour around Continental Europe before visiting the more unusual destinations of Greece, Turkey, and Egypt which were then part of the Ottoman Empire. This led him to later found a number of Orientalist societies. On his return to England in 1739, he took his seat in the House of Lords as a follower of the Duke of Bedford, one of the wealthiest and most powerful politicians of the era. He became a Patriot Whig and one of the sharpest critics of the Walpole government, attacking the government's strategy in the War of the Austrian Succession. Like many Patriot Whigs, Lord Sandwich was opposed to Britain's support of Hanover and strongly opposed the deployment of British troops on the European Continent to protect it, instead arguing that Britain should make greater use of its naval power. He gained attention for his speeches in parliament. His oratory earned him a reputation for clearly setting out his argument even if he lacked natural eloquence.


SOLUTION: 1

PROBLEM: Question: How many people lived in Nancy the year the Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed? Passage 1:Originally from the small city of Minden in Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, Spiva was the son of Hubert Spiva, Sr. (1899-1939), a former foreign correspondent, and the former Lilla Ellenor Stewart (1906–1959), who married in 1929. They operated the Webster Printing Company and the former The Minden Herald and The Webster Review newspapers, forerunners of the Minden Press-Herald. Lilla Spiva, a scion of a prominent Webster Parish family, was a daughter of Minden attorney Daniel Webster Stewart, Sr. (1857-1935), and his wife, the former Alice Leona Reagan (1871-1954). She was a niece of William Green Stewart, a farmer and a former president of the Webster Parish School Board, for whom the since defunct William G. Stewart Elementary School in Minden is named. Another uncle, E. L. Stewart, was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives at the time of her birth. Known as "Babe", Lilla Spiva managed the papers after her husband's death at the age of forty and was herself publisher and society editor of the Minden Herald and a member of the Louisiana Press Association. On January 23, 1960, the press association posthumously honored her for her journalistic accomplishments. Hubert Spiva is interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Webb City in Jasper County in southwestern Missouri. Lilla is interred with other Stewart relatives at the historic Minden Cemetery. Spiva's aunt, Lilla's sister, was Mary Amanda Stewart (1903–1994), whom he visited in the Stewart home, later the Farley home, when he returned to his hometown.
 Passage 2:Six units of the French Foreign Legion participated in the Battle of France: the 11th Foreign Infantry Regiment, the 12th Foreign Infantry Regiment, the Reconnaissance Group of the 97th Infantry Division, the 21st Marching Regiment of Foreign Volunteers (21st RMVE), the 22nd Marching Regiment of Foreign Volunteers, and the 23rd Marching Regiment of Foreign Volunteers. The 11th REI defended the northern Inor Wood near Verdun from the German offensive early on in the battle until June 11, 1940 when the regiment began a fighting retreat to the south. By June 18, the 11th REI had lost three-fourths of its strength and the regiment withdrew to the south near Toul. The 12th REI was redeployed from its training center in Valbonne on May 11 to defend the Soissons where it arrived on May 24 and eventually began to fortify their positions. The 12 REI first experienced a form of combat for which they were unprepared when on June 5, the town of Soissons was the subject of German strafing from Stukas. By June 8, the 12th REI, in danger of being encircled, received orders to retreat to the south, however the orders did not come soon enough and parts of the 12th REI were surrounded at Soissons; the rest of the 12th REI made their way to Limoges by the signing of Second Armistice at Compiègne on June 25, 1940. By the surrender of France the 12th REI had lost 2,500 of its number. The 21st Marching Regiment of Foreign Volunteers was deployed to the Maginot Line when the German offensive began, but was shifted to the north of Verdun by the end of May. The 21st RMVE took heavy losses during an engagement with the Germans on June 8 and 9; the 21st RMVE joined the rest of the French Army in that sector in retreat when the order to retreat was given. At the time of the armistice the 21st RMVE was at Nancy where it was disarmed by German forces. The 22nd Marching Regiment of the Foreign Volunteers left its training depot at Bacarès on May 6 when it was deployed around Alsace. The German offensive forced the 22nd RMVE to be quickly redeployed on the Somme near the village of Marchélepot where it fought a defensive action from May 22 to May 26. On June 5, the 22nd RMVE was preparing to counterattack the Germans at Villers-Carbonnel alongside the 112th Infantry Division when it came under a heavy preemptive attack launched by German forces in the area. The French Forces were able to initially repulse the attack, but later succumbed to the German onslaught; the force of the Foreign Legion acquitted themselves admirably in that engagement.
 Passage 3:On 6 September that year, Pope Urban VI declared that as James of Baux's successors had forfeited their rights to the Holy See, the principality belonged to him and he devolved its government on Paul Foscari, the archbishop of Patras, who in turn made Pedro vicar general. Pedro was constantly at war with the Despotate of Morea, against whom he even used Ottoman pirates, and the Duchy of Athens under Nerio I Acciaioli. The latter was captured near Vostitsa on 10 September 1389 while trying to sit to talks with Pedro concerning Argos and Nauplia. He had to buy his freedom with concessions to the Navarrese ally, Venice. Late in 1394 or early in 1395, the Turkish general Evrenos Beg invaded the despotate and met Pedro's forces at Leontari. Together the two besieged and took Akova (28 February). After Evrenos returned to Thessaly, Pedro was defeated by the Greeks and taken captive with the grand constable Andronico Asano Zaccaria, his brother-in-law. In December, Venice paid 50,000 hyperpers for the release of her allies.


SOLUTION:
2