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: Vance "Van" Wilder is a confident and sardonic seventh year senior at Coolidge College who is popular among most of the student body. With no ambition to graduate, Van spends his days driving around campus in his customized golf cart, posing nude for figure drawing classes, organizing soirees and fundraisers for his peers. Among his friends are his roommate and close confidant Hutch and his newly hired assistant Taj Badalandabad, a sexually repressed foreign exchange student from India.
Upon learning that his son is still in school, Van's father arrives at Coolidge intent on bringing him home. When Van refuses, his father decides to sever Van's financial support. Faced with disenrollment due to unpaid tuition, Van seeks a payment extension from the registrar, Deloris. After Van has sex with her, Deloris hands him the paperwork for an extension, which Van realizes he only needed to ask for in the first place.
Gwen Pearson works for the school paper, and despite her talents for journalism, her articles do not generate interest from the student body. Her editor assigns her to get an "unattainable" human interest story on Van Wilder as he normally refuses to do interviews for the paper. After a couple of attempts to get money fast, Van is approached by the Lambda Omega Omega fraternity, offering to pay him a thousand dollars to throw them a blowout party and boost their popularity.
Overhearing two of the Lambdas expressing their excitement over the party's success and their satisfaction with Van's work, Gwen writes a story crediting Van as the host of the party. Though Van hates the article at first, he realizes it can be the "cash cow" he needs to stay in school. Van eventually agrees to sit down with Gwen for the follow-up piece after losing a hockey bet to her.

SOLUTION: What is the full name of the person whose friends are his roommate and newly hired assistant?

PROBLEM: Passage: Fort Ticonderoga (), formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain, in northern New York, in the United States. It was constructed by Canadian-born French military engineer Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière between October 1755 and 1757, during the action in the "North American theater" of the Seven Years' War, often referred to in the US as the French and Indian War. The fort was of strategic importance during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, and again played an important role during the American Revolutionary War.
The site controlled a river portage alongside the mouth of the rapids-infested La Chute River, in the 3.5 miles (5.6 km) between Lake Champlain and Lake George. It was thus strategically placed for the competition over trade routes between the British-controlled Hudson River Valley and the French-controlled Saint Lawrence River Valley.
The terrain amplified the importance of the site. Both lakes were long and narrow and oriented north–south, as were the many ridge lines of the Appalachian Mountains, which extended as far south as Georgia. The mountains created nearly impassable terrains to the east and west of the Great Appalachian Valley that the site commanded.
The name "Ticonderoga" comes from the Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways".During the 1758 Battle of Carillon, 4,000 French defenders were able to repel an attack by 16,000 British troops near the fort. In 1759, the British returned and drove a token French garrison from the fort. During the American Revolutionary War, when the British controlled the fort, it was attacked in May 1775 in the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga by the  Green Mountain Boys and other state militia under the command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, who captured it in the surprise attack.  Cannons taken from the fort were transported to Boston to lift its siege by the British, who evacuated the city in March 1776. The Americans held the fort until June 1777, when British forces under General John Burgoyne occupied high ground above it; the threat resulted in the  Continental Army troops being withdrawn from the fort and its surrounding defenses.  The only direct attack on the fort during the Revolution took place in September 1777, when John Brown led 500 Americans in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the fort from about 100 British defenders.

SOLUTION: What was the two names of the large 18-century star fort built by the French in norther New York?

PROBLEM: 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.

SOLUTION:
What is the last name of the person who telephoned the Home Office and obtained permission from Churchill to bring in a detachment of Scots Guards?