Problem: Before the 1950s, the department store held an eminent place in both Canada and Australia, during both the Great Depression and World War II. Since then, they have suffered from strong competition from specialist stores. Most recently the competition has intensified with the advent of larger-scale superstores (Jones et al. 1994; Merrilees and Miller 1997). Competition was not the only reason for the department stores' weakening strength; the changing structure of cities also affected them. The compact and centralized 19th century city with its mass transit lines converging on the downtown was a perfect environment for department store growth. But as residents moved out of the downtown areas to the suburbs, the large, downtown department stores became inconvenient and lost business to the newer suburban shopping malls. In 2003, U.S. department store sales were surpassed by big-box store sales for the first time (though some stores may be classified as "big box" by physical layout and "department store" by merchandise).
In what year were department store sales beaten by larger stores?
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Answer: 2003


Problem: The DIN system, officially DIN standard 4512 by Deutsches Institut für Normung (but still named Deutscher Normenausschuß (DNA) at this time), was published in January 1934. It grew out of drafts for a standardized method of sensitometry put forward by Deutscher Normenausschuß für Phototechnik as proposed by the committee for sensitometry of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für photographische Forschung since 1930 and presented by Robert Luther (de) (1868–1945) and Emanuel Goldberg (1881–1970) at the influential VIII. International Congress of Photography (German: Internationaler Kongreß für wissenschaftliche und angewandte Photographie) held in Dresden from August 3 to 8, 1931.
What was the abbreviation for the Deutscher Normenausschuß für Phototechnik drafts?
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Answer: unanswerable


Problem: In the US, African Americans, who include multiracial people, earn 75% of what white people earn. In Brazil, people of color earn less than 50% of what whites earn. Some have posited that the facts of lower socioeconomic status for people of color suggest that Brazil practices a kind of one-drop rule, or discrimination against people who are not visibly European in ancestry. The gap in income between blacks and other non-whites is relatively small compared to the large gap between whites and all people of color. Other social factors, such as illiteracy and education levels, show the same patterns of disadvantage for people of color. Some commentators observe that the United States practice of segregation and white supremacy in the South, and discrimination in many areas outside that region, forced many African Americans to unite in the civil rights struggle. They suggest that the fluid nature of race in Brazil has divided individuals of African descent, between those with more or less ancestry. As a result, they have not united for a stronger civil rights movement.[citation needed]
What other patterns are consistent with unequal living standards?
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Answer:
illiteracy and education levels