according to an aspect , passage justification scoring is implemented by a processor executing computer readable instructions . the computer readable instructions includes creating a multi - layered neural network from domain knowledge and training the multi - layered neural network with labeled data and unlabeled data . the computer readable instructions further includes inputting at least one of an existing passage justification component and raw input data for a question and passage to the multi - layered neural network , extracting concepts determined to have passage justification with respect to a candidate answer contained in a respective passage , and creating a passage justification model from the extracted concepts and from passage justification ground truth .