TASK DEFINITION: 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.
PROBLEM: Passage: Oswald and a big beagle are at a cinema watching a documentary. The documentary tells about explorers who travel place to place in their hot air balloons. Oswald is amazed by the adventures of the explorers, and therefore decides become an explorer too.
One day at a fairground, a large crowd gathers to see Oswald take off in his balloon. The balloon is a large hot water bottle and the carriage is a metal stove (with switches inside). Oswald invites the big beagle, who is in the crowd, to join him.
The big beagle, at first, declines the invitation before he shakes hands with his little friend, and releases the balloon. But as the balloon rises and one of its anchors snags away his pants, the big beagle changes his mind. He would spend the entire ride on the anchor.
Oswald's balloon rapidly ascend into the heavens. They go so fast and so high that they even reach space. Their voyage ends when they land on the planet Mars. Unfortunately for them, their balloon is wreck, and the two are left wondering if they would ever get back. They begin walking on the rocky Martian surface. On the way, they see a giant sipping soup and gobbling explosives. Because of the giant's hostile nature, Oswald and the big beagle try to flee, only to unknowingly run into the bore of a huge cannon. The cannon shoots them airborne and they land in the giant's soup bowl.
The giant is surprised to see the two visitors in his bowl. Nevertheless, he becomes obliged to gobble them as he scoops up Oswald and the big beagle with his spoon. Suddenly the giant decides to delay eating his victims. He then puts Oswald and the big beagle in a large salt shaker and then chooses to have some music played by walking guns.

SOLUTION: Where did Oswald and a big beagle land when they were shot out of a canon?

PROBLEM: Passage: The first institute for higher education in the village was the School of Practical Agriculture and Horticulture, which Walter Law helped establish on his Briarcliff Farms in 1900. The school taught students ages 16 to 35 in crop and livestock care. In 1902, the school moved to a larger location near Poughkeepsie and closed a year later due to a lack of funding. In addition, Briarcliff Manor has been the location for several colleges. Briarcliff Junior College was founded in 1903 at the Briarcliff Lodge, and moved near Briarcliff Congregational Church, on land Walter Law donated, in 1905. Among its trustees were Howard Deering Johnson, Norman Cousins, Carl Carmer, Thomas K. Finletter, William Zorach, Eduard C. Lindeman, and Lyman Bryson. Ordway Tead was chairman of the board of trustees, and his wife Clara was the college's first president. The school gradually improved its academic scope and standing, and was registered with the State Education Department and accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in 1944. In 1951, the Board of Regents authorized the college to grant Associate of Arts and Associate of Applied Science degrees. The following year, the Army Map Service selected the college as the only one in the country for professional training in cartography. In 1956, the junior college started issuing bachelor's degrees, and became known as Briarcliff College. In 1977 Pace University bought Briarcliff College and the Spanish Renaissance-style Briarcliff Grade School building, incorporating them into its Pleasantville campus. The Briarcliff Grade School building, which housed the village public school from 1909 to 1980, became known as the Pace University Village Center. During Pace's occupation, the building housed the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society and the Village Youth Center. Pace University operated the school building until its demolition in 1996, and the Briarcliff College campus until 2015. At the Briarcliff Lodge property, the Edgewood Park School operated from 1936 to 1954, and King's College subsequently operated there from 1955 to 1994, also using the lodge building and other dormitories and academic buildings.

SOLUTION: What was the full name of the person whose wife was the college's first president?

PROBLEM: Passage: Returning to Danes Island in the summer of 1897, the expedition found that the balloon hangar built the year before had weathered the winter storms well. The winds were more favorable, too. Andrée had strengthened his leadership by replacing the older and critical Ekholm, an authority in his field, with the 27-year-old enthusiast Knut Frænkel.On 11 July, in a steady wind from the south-west, the top of the plank hangar was dismantled, the three explorers climbed into the already heavy basket, and Andrée dictated one last-minute telegram to King Oscar and another to the paper Aftonbladet, holder of press rights to the expedition. The large support team cut away the last ropes holding the balloon and it rose slowly. Moving out low over the water, it was pulled so far down by the friction of the several-hundred-meter-long drag ropes against the ground as to dip the basket into the water. The friction also twisted the ropes around, detaching them from their screw holds. These holds were a new safety feature that Andrée had reluctantly been persuaded to add, whereby ropes that got caught on the ground could be more easily dropped.
Most of them unscrewed at once and 530 kilograms (1,170 lb) of rope were lost, while the three explorers could simultaneously be seen to dump 210 kilograms (460 lb) of sand overboard to get the basket clear of the water. Seven hundred and forty kilograms (1,630 lb) of essential weight was thus lost in the first few minutes. Before it was well clear of the launch site, the Eagle had turned from a supposedly steerable craft into an ordinary hydrogen balloon with a few ropes hanging from it, at the mercy of the wind; its crew had no means to direct it to any particular goal and had too little ballast for stability. Lightened, the balloon rose to 700 metres (2,300 ft), an unimagined height, where the lower air pressure made the hydrogen escape all the faster through the eight million little holes.
The balloon had two means of communication with the outside world, buoys and homing pigeons. The buoys, steel cylinders encased in cork, were intended to be dropped from the balloon into the water or onto the ice, to be carried to civilization by the currents. Only two buoy messages have ever been found. One was dispatched by Andrée on 11 July, a few hours after takeoff, and reads "Our journey goes well so far. We sail at an altitude of about 250 m (820 ft), at first N 10° east, but later N 45° east [...] Weather delightful. Spirits high." The second was dropped an hour later and gave the height as 600 metres (2,000 ft).

SOLUTION:
Most of what was unscrewed at once?