A Rule-based Question Answering System for Reading
Comprehension Tests

Ellen Rilo
 and Michael Thelen
Department of Computer Science
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
frilo
,thelenmg@cs.utah.edu

Abstract
We have developed a rule-based system, Quarc,
that can read a short story and nd the sentence
in the story that best answers a given question.
Quarc uses heuristic rules that look for lexical
and semantic clues in the question and the story.
We have tested Quarc on reading comprehension 
tests typically given to children in grades
3-6. Overall, Quarc found the correct sentence
40% of the time, which is encouraging given the
simplicity of its rules.

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