Generating elements of answer-seeking queries and elements of answers

A system comprising:

• one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
• receiving a query having multiple terms;
• classifying the query as an answer-seeking query of a particular question type;
• obtaining one or more answer types associated with the particular question type, wherein each answer type specifies one or more respective answer elements that represent characteristics of an answer to the answer-seeking query;
• obtaining search results for the query, wherein each search result identifies a document;
• computing, for each passage of text of one or more passages of text occurring respectively in each document identified by the search results, a count of matching answer types of the one or more answer types associated with the particular question type, wherein an answer type is a matching answer type for a passage of text whenever one or more respective answer elements belonging to the answer type each occur in the passage of text;
• computing a respective score for each passage of text of one or more passages of text occurring in each document identified by the search results, wherein the respective score for each passage of text is based the respective computed count of matching answer types for the passage of text;
• determining that a computed score for a first passage of text occurring in a first document identified by a first search result satisfies a threshold;
• and
• in response, providing, in response to the query, a presentation that includes the first passage of text from the first document identified by the first search result.

A computer program product, encoded on one or more non-transitory computer storage media, comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a query having multiple terms;
• classifying the query as an answer-seeking query of a particular question type;
• obtaining one or more answer types associated with the particular question type, wherein each answer type specifies one or more respective answer elements that represent characteristics of an answer to the answer-seeking query;
• obtaining search results for the query, wherein each search result identifies a document;
• computing, for each passage of text of one or more passages of text occurring respectively in each document identified by the search results, a count of matching answer types of the one or more answer types associated with the particular question type, wherein an answer type is a matching answer type for a passage of text whenever one or more respective answer elements belonging to the answer type each occur in the passage of text;
• computing a respective score for each passage of text of one or more passages of text occurring in each document identified by the search results, wherein the respective score for each passage of text is based the respective computed count of matching answer types for the passage of text;
• determining that a computed score for a first passage of text occurring in a first document identified by a first search result satisfies a threshold;
• and
• in response, providing, in response to the query, a presentation that includes the first passage of text from the first document identified by the first search result.