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 long had Ronald Reagan been President of the United States when the Falklands war began? Passage 1:The Union for Democratic Renewal (Union pour la Renouveau Démocratique) was a coalition of political parties in the Republic of the Congo. The coalition was led by Bernard Kolélas, who was also the leader of the coalition's largest party, the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development (MCDDI). The URD parties supported the transitional government of Prime Minister André Milongo (1991–1992) and opposed the National Alliance for Democracy (AND), which included the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS) and the Congolese Labour Party (PCT). In the parliamentary election held in June–July 1992, the AND parties won a slight majority of seats in the National Assembly and UPADS leader Pascal Lissouba was victorious over Kolélas in the August 1992 presidential election.
 Passage 2:He graduated from the University of Damascus in 1923 with a degree in law, and joined the city government in 1925. At this time he also actively ran his family's estates throughout the country. In the 1930s, he became close associates with leading members of the anti-French National Bloc coalition such as future presidents Hashim al-Atassi and Shukri al-Kuwatli. He remained a longtime supporter of the former, but often quarreled with the latter, whom he accused of being too authoritarian. In 1941 the French appointed him Prime Minister and Acting President, having had no success in finding a viable candidate since the resignation of the nationalist Atassi in 1939. However he was replaced 5 months later with a French loyalist, Taj al-Din al-Hasani. Azm served repeatedly in parliament and in the cabinet from 1943 to 1947. He became a focus of opposition when he resigned from the cabinet in 1945 and lead the forces opposed to Kuwatli's drive to amend the constitution to allow himself a second term in office. Kuwatli prevailed, and Azm ran against him in 1947 and lost. However he accepted the position of envoy to France and served in that capacity for a year. He concluded successful arms purchases from France and later from the Soviet Union. In May 1948, Azm agreed to form a multi-party cabinet under Kuwatli which served until March 1949. He allied himself with France and the United States and attempted to obtain loans from them for domestic development. He traveled frequently to attend United Nations assemblies on the Palestinian problem. Azm clashed with members of the military, especially Chief of Staff Husni al-Za'im. The latter launched a coup d'état on 29 March 1949 and imprisoned both Azm and president Kuwatli. When Za'im was overthrown five months later, Azm returned to parliament as deputy for Damascus and became minister of finance. He was also elected into the Constituent Assembly that drafted a new constitution for Syria. He became Prime Minister again under Hashim al-Atassi's second administration, in June 1950, heading three cabinets between then and 1951. Azm closed the border to Lebanese goods in an attempt to prevent the crash of domestic Syrian industry due to rampant Lebanese imports. He also clashed repeatedly with the military because he refused to appoint officers in any of his cabinets, and always reserved the defense portfolio for himself. He also clashed with pro-Hashemite elements in Syrian politics that advocated union with Iraq. Socialists distrusted him because of his aristocratic and wealthy Ottoman background. Azm left the public arena from 1951 to 1954 in protest over the coup of Adib al-Shishakli which toppled Atassi's democratic administration.
 Passage 3:On December 1, 1981, United States President Ronald Reagan signed a presidential finding which authorized covert operations in Nicaragua. This plan initially called for the U.S. government to cooperate with the Argentinian government, which was already engaged in a similar operation, to train and fund an existing terrorist group in Nicaragua known as the Contras. The Contras also contributed to drug dealing in the US and brought a lot of crack cocaine. A reporter for the San Jose Mercury News proved the connection between the crack epidemic and the Contras. Initially the Contras were a group of republican guard members from the old Somoza regime ousted by the Sandinistas after the revolutionary conflict. Later, through the recruitment efforts of the CIA, the group became supplemented by mercenary guerrillas and was extensively trained by the CIA. Eventually, due to the U.S. alliance with Great Britain during the Falklands war, Argentina withdrew support for these programs and the CIA had to relocate their training sites to Honduras.


SOLUTION: 3

PROBLEM: Question: What was the population of Muirhouse in 1955? Passage 1:Because his father - Sergey Matveyev - was a notable diplomat, Artamon Matveyev was brought up at the royal court since the age of thirteen, where he would become close friends with Alexius I. Matveyev started his career as a government official, who worked in Ukraine and took part in some of Russia's wars with Poland. He was a member of the Russian delegation at the conclusion of the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654 and Russian diplomatic mission to Poland in 1656-1657. As the head of the Streltsy Department, Matveyev participated in suppression of the Copper Riot in 1662. Seven years later, he was put in charge of the Malorossiysky Prikaz, i.e. Ministry of the Ukrainian Affairs, and in 1671 - head of the Posolsky Prikaz (foreign ministry) and other ministries. Matveyev was known to have considered unification of Ukraine and Russia as the most important issue of the Russian foreign policy. He once said that it was even possible to temporarily forget about the struggle with the Swedes for the Baltic Sea for the sake of unification with Ukraine. In 1672, Matveyev managed to secure Kiev for Russia during the talks with Poland.
 Passage 2:Irvine Welsh was born in Leith, the port area of the Scottish capital Edinburgh. He states that he was born in 1958, though, according to the Glasgow police, his birth record is dated around 1951. When he was four, his family moved to Muirhouse, in Edinburgh, where they stayed in local housing schemes. His mother worked as a waitress. His father was a dock worker in Leith until bad health forced him to quit, after which he became a carpet salesman; he died when Welsh was 25. Welsh left Ainslie Park High School when he was 16 and then completed a City and Guilds course in electrical engineering. He became an apprentice TV repairman until an electric shock persuaded him to move on to a series of other jobs. He left Edinburgh for the London punk scene in 1978, where he played guitar and sang in The Pubic Lice and Stairway 13, the latter a reference to the Ibrox disaster. A series of arrests for petty crimes and finally a suspended sentence for trashing a North London community centre inspired Welsh to correct his ways. He worked for Hackney London Borough Council in London and studied computing with the support of the Manpower Services Commission.
 Passage 3:The third son of Edmond Prideaux, he was born at Padstow, Cornwall, on 3 May 1648. His mother was a daughter of John Moyle. After education at Liskeard grammar school and Bodmin grammar school, he went to Westminster School under Richard Busby, recommended by his uncle William Morice. On 11 December 1668 he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he had obtained a studentship. He graduated B.A. 22 June 1672, M.A. 29 April 1675, B.D. 15 November 1682, D.D. 8 June 1686. In January 1674, Prideaux recorded in his letters a visit to his home of William Levett; with Levett came Lord Cornbury, son of the Earl of Clarendon, Levett's principal patron. In other letters, Prideaux mentioned alliances with Levett in ongoing church political maneuverings. At the university he was known for scholarship; John Fell employed him in 1672 on an edition of Florus. He also worked on Edmund Chilmead's edition of the chronicle of John Malalas.


SOLUTION: 2

PROBLEM: Question: Which group was organized the earliest, the 1st King's Dragoon Guards or the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays)? Passage 1:Levette J. Davidson was a nationally acclaimed expert in folklore, especially that of Colorado and the West. He was born in Eureka, Illinois May 16, 1894, one of four children. Because his grand uncle was past-President of Eureka College, a Christian seminary, Davidson was reared in the school's shadow with the option of becoming either a teacher or a preacher. He chose teaching and was awarded his B.A. from Eureka in 1915. A year later he received his A.M. degree from the University of Illinois where he received Phi Beta Kappa honors. In 1917 he earned his M.A. in social science and history at Harvard University. __During World War I, he served with the Tenth Infantry of the Forty-Sixth Division and also served as an army sergeant in Intelligence. Davidson and his wife Mary, also a graduate of Eureka, were married in 1918. At the end of the war, Davidson simultaneously taught and studied at the University of Michigan where he earned a Ph.D. in languages and literatures in 1922. He arrived in Denver later that year and began teaching at the University of Denver. Before arriving in Colorado, his academic specialty was eighteenth century England. Once in Denver, he realized that Western literature and folklore would be his life work. Davidson taught at the University of Denver until his death in 1957. His course topics ranged from studies of Shakespeare and other English literature, to folklore in the West. He began teaching news writing and eventually founded the journalism department at the University as well as the board of publications and the press club. He was the first faculty member elected to serve as president of the University Senate. In 1940 he became head of the English Department and from March to August 1953 he served as interim Chancellor. At the time of assuming his post, he remarked: There is hardly an organization on campus that I have not been connected with at one time or another. Davidson was named University Lecturer for 1956. Davidson was a director of the Colorado State Historical Society, the Modern Languages Association, the American Folklore Society, and the American Dialect Society. He was a charter member of the Denver Posse of the Westerners, an organization devoted to western folklore. In spare moments, Davidson conducted research, wrote outlines for plays, and authored a large number of articles. He contributed to a wide range of magazines from Western American to Shakespeare Quarterly. Additionally, Davidson authored several books on folklore. The most widely recognized is Rocky Mountain Tales, which presents regional folklore as well as true accounts of early events in the area. Levette Davidson died May 14, 1957.
 Passage 2:The 1st King's Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army. The regiment was raised by Sir John Lanier in 1685 as the 2nd Queen's Regiment of Horse, named in honour of Queen Mary, consort of King James II. It was renamed the 2nd King's Own Regiment of Horse in 1714 in honour of George I. The regiment attained the title 1st King's Dragoon Guards in 1751. The regiment served as horse cavalry until 1937 when it was mechanised with light tanks. The regiment became part of the Royal Armoured Corps in 1939. After service in the First World War and the Second World War, the regiment amalgamated with the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) in 1959 to form the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards.
 Passage 3:Marla grew up on the South Side of Chicago, the daughter of Dell Glen (American-Jamaican) and Cortez Glen (Mexican-American). Glen's father was a blues guitarist, her grandmother a gospel singer, and her mother was friends with the blues guitarist B.B. King. Her mother Dell graduated from the University of Chicago and went on to become a successful banker who worked for Merrill Lynch. Glen's father, an American patriot who joined the military at a young age, became an engineer based in Frankfurt, Germany. Like many other children in Chicago's historic Bronzeville neighborhood (also known as the Black Metropolis) who received gifts and inspiration from folks like Muddy Waters and BB King, Marla was given a toy harmonica as a child, and her musical talent became immediately apparent. She was only 11 years old when she wrote her first song, "Repertoire", a title that has won three gold records and one platinum, and appears on her 1996 release, Love and Respect.


SOLUTION:
2