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: In 1861 Saint-Saëns accepted his only post as a teacher, at the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse, Paris, which Louis Niedermeyer had established in 1853 to train first-rate organists and choirmasters for the churches of France. Niedermeyer himself was professor of piano; when he died in March 1861, Saint-Saëns was appointed to take charge of piano studies. He scandalised some of his more austere colleagues by introducing his students to contemporary music, including that of Schumann, Liszt and Wagner. His best-known pupil, Gabriel Fauré, recalled in old age:
After allowing the lessons to run over, he would go to the piano and reveal to us those works of the masters from which the rigorous classical nature of our programme of study kept us at a distance and who, moreover, in those far-off years, were scarcely known. ... At the time I was 15 or 16, and from this time dates the almost filial attachment ... the immense admiration, the unceasing gratitude I [have] had for him, throughout my life.
Saint-Saëns further enlivened the academic regime by writing, and composing incidental music for, a one-act farce performed by the students (including André Messager). He conceived his best-known piece, The Carnival of the Animals, with his students in mind, but did not finish composing it until 1886, more than twenty years after he left the Niedermeyer school.In 1864 Saint-Saëns caused some surprise by competing a second time for the Prix de Rome. Many in musical circles were puzzled by his decision to enter the competition again, now that he was establishing a reputation as a soloist and composer. He was once more unsuccessful. Berlioz, one of the judges, wrote:
We gave the Prix de Rome the other day to a young man who wasn't expecting to win it and who went almost mad with joy. We were all expecting the prize to go to Camille Saint-Saëns, who had the strange notion of competing. I confess I was sorry to vote against a man who is truly a great artist and one who is already well known, practically a celebrity. But the other man, who is still a student, has that inner fire, inspiration, he feels, he can do things that can't be learnt and the rest he'll learn more or less. So I voted for him, sighing at the thought of the unhappiness that this failure must cause Saint-Saëns. But, whatever else, one must be honest.

SOLUTION: What is the first name of the man who scandalised some of his more austere colleagues by introducing his students to contemporary music.?

PROBLEM: Passage: Possibly because of its size, The Sirens and Ulysses failed to sell at the 1837 Summer Exhibition. In October 1837 wealthy Manchester cotton merchant Daniel Grant, an admirer of Etty who had already commissioned Venus and her Doves from him, met Etty at Heaton Park races and offered to buy The Sirens and Ulysses and Etty's smaller Samson Betrayed by Delilah unseen for a total of £200. Etty was hoping for £400 for the two paintings, but on being told by Grant that his firm had lost £100,000 that year offered a price of £300 for the pair. Grant counter-offered £250 (about £22,000 in today's terms), which Etty refused. On leaving at the end of the evening, Grant suddenly said, "Will you take the money?", startling Etty, who in his surprise agreed. Grant died shortly afterwards, leaving the painting to his brother William, who in turn gave it to the Royal Manchester Institution in 1839.Etty considered the painting to be his best work, insisting that it form the centrepiece of his 1849 Royal Society of Arts solo exhibition. The Royal Manchester Institution was concerned that the painting would be damaged if moved, refusing to allow it to be used in the exhibition until Etty, and a number of influential friends, visited Manchester to beg them to release it. Etty died later that year, and his work enjoyed a brief boom in popularity. Interest in him declined over time, and by the end of the 19th century the cost of all his paintings had fallen below their original prices. As it was rarely exhibited, The Sirens and Ulysses had little influence on later artists, although it is credited as an influence on Frederic Leighton's 1858 The Fisherman and the Syren.
Ulysses and the Sirens is one of those great efforts of my Art achieved in the vigour of my life, I can never make again.

SOLUTION: What were the names of what Etty was hoping to get £400 for?

PROBLEM: Passage: Jordan Sands is an awkward and nerdy 17-year-old girl with a bad case of allergies, who just became the woman of the house after the recent death of her mother. Her father David is struggling to make ends meet, while her 14-year-old brother Hunter drives the family crazy with gory pranks. They inherit their deceased mother's Great-Uncle Dragomir's castle in Wolfsberg, Romania after getting a package in the mail. After arriving in Wolfsberg, they meet the strange and steely castle housekeeper, Madame Varcolac.
Varcolac discourages David from selling the property, but he ends up going on dates with and falling for the real estate agent Paulina von Eckberg. One day while snooping around Dragomir's lab, Jordan steps on a vial of strange liquid. Hunter manages to pull the pieces out from her foot, but Jordan's behavior changes, such as her allergies disappearing, seeing without glasses, and smelling things very far away. Hunter's friends explain that Jordan's behaviors are akin to those of a werewolf's, and that she is one either because of a bloodline curse, a bite from an infected person, or from getting blood of a werewolf. In Jordan's case, it was revealed to have been LB-217, which is short for "Lycanthrope Blood".
Jordan continues to succumb to the changes, having behavioral changes. After her date with Goran, the young butcher, Jordan turns into a werewolf, which Hunter witnesses. She flees and Hunter contacts his friends for help. They reveal that there is no cure they know of other than shooting a werewolf dead with silver. Hunter refuses to do this to his sister. His friends warn that if Jordan is not cured by the next sunrise, she will always be a werewolf, cursed to shift every night until the end of her life.

SOLUTION:
What is the full name of the person whose father is struggling to make ends meet?