Thursday, October 14, 2010

Not Convinced that Reading Skills are Necessary?

In case you think I'm being alarmist about the poor reading/writing/comprehension/vocabulary skills of our students today, let me give you a few examples taken from last years GED exams. Yes, I checked with Snopes--no one is challenging that these did not come from the exam.

Q. Name the four seasons.
A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar

Q. What does the word 'benign' mean?
A. Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

Q. What is a terminal illness?
A. When you are sick at the airport

Q. What is a turbine?
A. Something an Arab or Shreik wears on his head

Q. What guarantees may a mortgage company insist upon?
A. If you are buying a house they will insist that you are well endowed.

4 comments:

Knitter of Shiny Things said...

At first I read that as GRE exams, and thought "how were those questions on the GRE?" Then I saw that you had written GED, which makes a lot more sense. (So much for reading skills.)

Anonymous said...

Oy, vey!!

Mike S. said...

If you give an exam to enough people there are bound to be some ludicrous and/or funny answers. I don't doubt that the answers are real, but that doesn't mean they are typical.

Anonymous said...

Personally, I doubt very much the answers are real because my BS-meter is ringing off the hook.