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 people currently live in the city that was captured in 1630 by a Persian army? Passage 1:Gradually Clayburgh shifted into being more of a supporting character actress in the 90s, taking on roles as diverse as an antagonistic judge in Trial: The Price of Passion (1992) and the interfering wife of Alan Alda's character in Whispers in the Dark (1992). After appearing in Ben Gazzara's Beyond the Ocean (1990), which was shot in Bali, and the unreleased Pretty Hattie's Baby (1991), she became typecast as an attractive maternal figure: she was the long-missing matriarch in Rich in Love (1992), a wheelchair-bound mom in Firestorm: 72 Hours in Oakland (1993) and Eric Stoltz's single mother in Naked in New York (1993). A review in People magazine felt Clayburgh "[did] her best as the footloose mother" in Rich in Love, while Roger Ebert praised her casting in Naked in New York as "exactly on target". She also played Kitty Menendez who was murdered by her sons in Honor Thy Father and Mother: The True Story of the Menendez Murders (1993), a role which Variety perceived to be "incomplete, but that has more to do with the script than Clayburgh’s performance." She continued to play concerned, protective mothers in For the Love of Nancy (1994), The Face on the Milk Carton (1995), Going All the Way (1997), Fools Rush In (1997), When Innocence Is Lost (1997) and Sins of the Mind (1997), and was in "good form" as the forceful, pushy stage mother in Crowned and Dangerous (1997).
 Passage 2:A son of Daud Khan, a Georgian prince and convert to Islam, by a concubine, he was born Khosro Mirza and brought up Muslim at the Persian court by eunuchs alongside young slave recruits. An intelligent and resolute in his decisions, he soon attracted the attention of Shah Abbas I of Safavid who appointed him, in 1618, a darugha (prefect) of the capital Isfahan. From 1625 to 1626, he took part in suppression of the Georgian opposition: he commanded a right flank at the victorious Battle of Marabda and saved part of the Persian troops from a complete disaster at the Battle of Ksani. In 1626, Khosro Mirza was recalled from Georgia and appointed the commander of the Shah's élite gholam corps (qollar-aghasi) three years later. In 1629, Abbas, lying on a deathbed, urged him to protect a grandson and heir Sam Mirza, the future Shah Safi, whom Khosro served faithfully. In 1630, he led a Persian army which defeated the Ottoman forces and captured Baghdad. In the early 1630s, he took part in sidelining and destruction of the Undiladze family, also of Georgian origin, who had dominated the Safavid court for years. Afterwards, he was sent to suppress the opposition of Georgians who had managed to unite the eastern regions of Kartli and Kakheti under Teimuraz I for a brief period of 1630-1633. Teimuraz was joined by a surviving Undiladze, Daud Khan. For his loyalty, Shah Safi appointed him as the new vali of Kartli, and granted him the name of Rostam Khan (Rostom, როსტომი, in Georgian transliteration). Rostom then came to Georgia with a large Persian army commanded by his fellow Georgian Rustam Khan. He soon took control of Kartli and garrisoned all major fortresses with Persian forces, bringing them, however, under his tight control. His willingness to cooperate with his suzerain won for Kartli a larger degree of autonomy. A period of relative peace and prosperity ensued, with the cities and towns being revived, many deserted areas repopulated and commerce flourished. Although Muslim, Rostom helped to restore a major Georgian Orthodox cathedral of Living Pillar (Svetitskhoveli) at Mtskheta, and patronised Christian culture. However, Islam and Persian habits predominated at his court. He ruthlessly crushed an opposition of local nobles, putting to death the catholicos Eudemus I of Georgia, and invaded, in 1648, Kakheti, forcing Teimuraz to flee to Imereti (western Georgia).
 Passage 3:Ferrary was the son of the Duke and Duchess of Galliera. His father, Raffaele de Ferrari, came from an ancient and rich family of Genovese bankers and was a wealthy businessman made Duke of Galliera in Genoa by Pope Gregory XVI, and Prince de Lucedio by Victor-Emmanuel II, King of Italy. Raffaele de Ferrari was co-founder of the Crédit Mobilier with the Péreire brothers, rivals of the Rothschilds, who financed many of the major construction projects of the second half of the 19th century: railroads in Austria, Latin America, Portugal, upper Italy and France (the Paris-Lyon-Marseille line), the digging of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel and the Suez Canal, and the reconstruction of Paris designed by Baron Haussmann. It is said that Raffaele de Ferrari died stuck in one of his immense safes.


SOLUTION: 2

PROBLEM: Question: Was the coach that Culverhouse hired younger than the person he replaced? Passage 1:The son of Thomas Watts of Buntingford, Hertfordshire, he was owner of the Margaret and John, one of the ships paid by the city of London in 1588 to sail against the Spanish armada. Watts himself served in her as a volunteer, and saw action. In 1590 the same ship was one of a fleet of merchantmen coming home from the Mediterranean, which successfully fought and repelled the Spanish galleys near Cadiz. Although Watts was not on board, throughout the war he equipped and financed privateers led by Michael Geare, William Lane and Christopher Newport. A few of his notable successes include his financed and organised expedition to the Spanish main in 1590, the expedition to Cuba the following year and James Lancaster's expedition to Recife in April 1595. Watt's received significant prize money from the success of these expeditions. Another in July 1601 took into Plymouth a prize coming from the Indies laden with China silks, satins and taffetas. At this time he was an alderman of London (Tower ward), and had been suspected of being a supporter of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.
 Passage 2:During the Trojan War, Andromache hid the child in Hector's tomb, but the child was discovered. His fate was debated by the Greeks, for if he were allowed to live, it was feared he would avenge his father and rebuild Troy. In the version given by the Little Iliad and repeated by Pausanias (x 25.4), he was killed by Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus), who threw the infant from the walls. Another version is given in Iliou persis, in which Odysseus kills Astyanax. It has also been depicted in some Greek vases that Neoptolemus kills Priam, who has taken refuge near a sacred altar, using Astyanax's dead body to club the old king to death, in front of horrified onlookers. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the child is thrown from the walls by the Greek victors (13, 413ff). In Euripides's The Trojan Women (719 ff), the herald Talthybius reveals to Andromache that Odysseus has convinced the council to have the child thrown from the walls, and the child is in this way killed. In Seneca's version of The Trojan Women, the prophet Calchas declares that Astyanax must be thrown from the walls if the Greek fleet is to be allowed favorable winds (365–70), but once led to the tower, the child himself leaps off the walls (1100–3). For Hector's mother, Hecuba, Astyanax was the only hope and consolation, and his death's announcement was a terrible climax of the catastrophe. Other sources for the story of the Sack of Troy and Astyanax's death can be found in the Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), Hyginus (Fabula 109), Tryphiodorus (Sack of Troy 644–6).
 Passage 3:Former Atlanta Falcons coach Leeman Bennett was named by owner Hugh Culverhouse as the replacement for retired head coach John McKay. Other candidates interviewed included Buccaneer defensive coordinator Wayne Fontes, Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Tom Catlin, former Michigan Panthers head coach Jim Stanley, former New England Patriots head coach Ron Meyer, Washington Redskins quarterback coach Jerry Rhome, former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Bud Carson, and former Florida Gators coach Charley Pell. Bennett was an unexpected choice, as Fontes had long been considered to be the leading candidate and had the near-unanimous support of the players and existing staff. Culverhouse almost gave Fontes the job without conducting an interview process, before having second thoughts and soliciting recommendations from McKay, Tex Schramm, and Dan Rooney. Described as "heartbroken", Fontes learned while attending a scouting combine in Arizona that he had been passed over for the job. Bennett indicated that nobody who had been a candidate for the head coaching job would be hired as an assistant, ending speculation that he might retain Fontes or bring in his former assistant Jim Stanley. Fontes eventually accepted the defensive coordinator position with the Detroit Lions.


SOLUTION: 3

PROBLEM: Question: How old was the British Admiral when he took control of the Southeast Asia Command? Passage 1:Silvanus was born in Gaul, the son of Bonitus, a Laetic Frankish general who had supported Constantine I in the civil war against Licinius. Like so many other Franks of his times, and like his father before him, he was a loyal and thoroughly romanized "barbarian" in the military service of the Empire. By AD 351, he held the rank of tribune and was one of the senior officers who defected to Emperor Constantius II at the Battle of Mursa Major, after initially supporting the usurper Magnentius. An able soldier, Silvanus was eventually promoted to the rank of Magister militum per Gallias, a crucial post, then in AD 352-353, Constantius personally entrusted him with the difficult task of driving the Alamanni tribesmen raiding and looting in Gaul back beyond the Rhine, and restoring the fast eroding Roman authority in the province. This Silvanus fulfilled partly by bribing the Alamanni chieftains with the taxes he had collected, partly by defeating the Alamanni in battle and partly by suppressing the local bagaudae insurrections flaring up again in central and northern Gaul.
 Passage 2:At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the Combined Chiefs of Staff decided that Indochina south of latitude 16° north was to be included in the Southeast Asia Command under British Admiral Mountbatten. Japanese forces located south of that line surrendered to him and those to the north surrendered to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. In September 1945, Chinese forces entered Tonkin, and a small British task force landed at Saigon. The Chinese accepted the Vietnamese government under Hồ Chí Minh, then in power in Hanoi. The British refused to do likewise in Saigon, and deferred to the French there from the outset, against the ostensible support of the Việt Minh authorities by American OSS representatives. On V-J Day, September 2, Hồ Chí Minh had proclaimed in Hanoi the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). The DRV ruled as the only civil government in all of Vietnam for a period of about 20 days, after the abdication of Emperor Bảo Đại, who had governed under Japanese rule. On 23 September 1945, with the knowledge of the British commander in Saigon, French forces overthrew the local DRV government, and declared French authority restored in Cochinchina. Guerrilla warfare began around Saigon immediately, but the French gradually retook control of the South and North of Indochina. Hồ Chí Minh agreed to negotiate the future status of Vietnam, but the talks, held in France, failed to produce a solution. After over one year of latent conflict, all-out war broke out in December 1946 between French and Việt Minh forces as Hồ Chí Minh and his government went underground. The French tried to stabilize Indochina by reorganizing it as a Federation of Associated States. In 1949, they put former Emperor Bảo Đại back in power, as the ruler of a newly established State of Vietnam.
 Passage 3:Like the star Epsilon Draconis in the constellation of Draco, Beta Cephei is visible primarily in the northern hemisphere, given its extreme northern declination of 70 degrees and 34 minutes. It is nevertheless visible to most observers throughout the world reaching as far south as cities like Harare in Zimbabwe, Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia or other settlements north ± 19° South latitude. It is circumpolar throughout all of Europe, northern Asia, and North American cities as far south as Guadalajara in west central Mexico. All other locations around the globe having a latitude greater than ± 20° North will notice that the star is always visible in the night sky. Because Beta Cephei is a faint third magnitude star, it may be difficult to identify in most light polluted cities, though in rural locations the star should be easily observable.


SOLUTION:
2