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struelle · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 2372 Location: Shanghai

You've all seen 'em - beginner students who aren't familiar with the nuances and humor of English end up writing hilarious answers to test questions! The grammar is spot-on, the vocab is great, they get full credit, but they should get bonus marks for the unplanned humor that comes from their answers.

In my teacher training class for beginner-level students I do on Wed nights, one test question was, "Name 6 countries you know and write something about each one."

The answer, "China has a lot of people. Canada has natural scenery, America has terrorists, ... "

Another test I gave was in Physics in English. The question, "Why pay so much for an airplane ticket?"

The answer, "Because there is a lot of beautiful scenery you can look at on the plane, so you must pay for that."

Ahh, it makes grading tests a lot more fun!

Steve

lagger · Joined: 08 Apr 2003 Posts: 40 Location: Australia

I have a student who always writes smart-ass answers on tests. Recently he wrote:

Undertaker - Somebody who has fun with dead bodies. I marked him wrong and told him that he was thinking of a necrophiliac.

I often chuckle when marking papers.

Kurochan · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 944 Location: China

One of my students was trying to give directions during his oral test last week and said, "Turn right at the third international." That counter-revolutionary!

I had some great responses when I taught film, including, "In THE GRADUATE, Ms. Robinson tried to induce Ben," which I guess is right, but not what the student was trying to say. I had one answer like, "In 50s, woman couldn't even have the sex when she wants to!" There was one kid whose answers were great because he'd be superemphatic about everything. About KING KONG, he wrote, "It's MADNESS to say it was beauty who killed the beast!" and about REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE he wrote, "Jim was a bright boy, but hasty! He wanted to look up to his father, but he failed him from time to time!"

Other good ones:
Q: How did RESERVOIR DOGS break the rules of Classic Hollywood Cinema?
A: Use pets as actors.

Q: In REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, why were Judy, Jim and Plato so unhappy?
A: Only God knows.

Actually, I had some funny answers when I taught in the US. In a class about Stanley Kubrick, one kid wrote, "SPARTACUS was designed as a star vehicle for Kurt Russel," and somebody else wrote, "William Makepeace Thackaray was the special-effects designer for 2001."