The question was "What is the problem?"

The statement that all databases share the same TempDB is not a problem; it's a statement of an immutable fact.

The answer is twice belied...

How pathetic that roughly 50% could not identify a concept covered in any introductory database text...and an early chapter at that.

Couldn't have been a joke... Jokes are funny, jokes are clever, jokes are amusing - This was just a waste of time.

It comes as no surprise to me that even in a forum dedicated to a particular knowledge base, less than half the respondents can correctly identify a concept that defines the underpinnings...

These formal definitions are taken from the book by Chris J. Date: An Introduction to Database Systems Volume 1 4th edition, © 1996, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., Reading, Massachusetts.

First...

At the risk of sounding completely pedantic, the answer should have an additional blank at the end.

Should we send the answer to you or directly to your professor

Worst question ever!

You cannot pause a query once it has begun.  You can kill it but I suspect that this is not what you want to accomplish.

Your solution probably lies more in...

Craig,

you say that your clustered index is hogging memory but the Scan Density value of 99.84% says that the data is pretty compact.  Perhaps you want to perform a shrink...