Teachers and students stumped by question about talking pineapple on a state exam

Originally Posted by mariogreymist

Really? Now I stand corrected. I had previously believed this was a simulated report of a sporting event.

Well, I'm glad we've found the source of your confusion.

The pineapple was the smartest. Fruits don't have any other function than to get eaten. Even if he can talk, he can't even move what's the point. And they were obviously sympathetic to the pineapples' cause. You can feel their concern.

In the end, the pineapple got what he wanted, so I guess he wins.

Best question ever, honestly what is the issue, it was brilliant.

It is a question about literary analysis by making it so ridiculous the only means to discern any sense is to not use presupposed knowledge but the actual information given to you in the text, people who don't get it need to take some more literature. Also it helps if you don't get caught in the sheer abstractness of the story. So I can see people who are very concrete having a real problem with this.

Brilliant.

Originally Posted by DarkWarrior

Best question ever, honestly what is the issue, it was brilliant.

It is a question about literary analysis by making it so ridiculous the only means to discern any sense is to not use presupposed knowledge but the actual information given to you in the text, people who don't get it need to take some more literature. Also it helps if you don't get caught in the sheer abstractness of the story. So I can see people who are very concrete having a real problem with this.

Brilliant.

If that's the point - why use actual creatures rather than have the pineapple challenge a snork to the race, and have a morq, a cogob and a merton talk about who's going to win? Why the deliberate comparison to "the tortoise and the hare"? Sorry, if you want to force pure syntactic and grammatical analysis, you don't do these things.

Originally Posted by mariogreymist

If that's the point - why use actual creatures rather than have the pineapple challenge a snork to the race, and have a morq, a cogob and a merton talk about who's going to win? Why the deliberate comparison to "the tortoise and the hare"? Sorry, if you want to force pure syntactic and grammatical analysis, you don't do these things.

The point of the story is to flip you on your head, a complete imaginary world is easier to decipher than a abstract version of our world. It's designed to make you think about it, if you cant think about well.... sucks to be you. Not saying you can't, just saying the people who get it wrong. If you just use what you learn in school it's fine. Then again I've been in college level literature courses since 10th grade, so I suppose this is unfair of me to judge, but I found it brilliant and fun, and relatively easy.

Originally Posted by DarkWarrior

The point of the story is to flip you on your head, a complete imaginary world is easier to decipher than a abstract version of our world. It's designed to make you think about it, if you cant think about well.... sucks to be you. Not saying you can't, just saying the people who get it wrong. If you just use what you learn in school it's fine. Then again I've been in college level literature courses since 10th grade, so I suppose this is unfair of me to judge, but I found it brilliant and fun, and relatively easy.

It's still culturally biased, which makes it an unsuitable standardized test question. (or series of questions) Not to mention, punishing certain kinds of thinkers is a silly thing to do on a standardized test, unless there is a section specifically designed to screw with people who tend to default to figurative thinking rather than literal. It's not that the question is hard, but that it is unequally hard based on factors which normally aren't part of standardized testing. (by rewarding those familiar with the hare/tortoise fable and those familiar with the cultural depiction of the "wise" owl)

And frankly, if you want to test figurative thinking, you could do so much better than this by avoiding known stories and stereotypes.

But mostly: didn't someone earlier post that this was actually a joke to begin with?

There are some flaws in the execution, but it's hard not to appreciate cheeky humor in a test. I think this divided test takers into two types: those with senses of humor who will take this as a sort of oasis to smile during the test, and those who get frustrated by how ridiculous it is, and smile even less.

I'm still not sure of the reasoning behind saying the owl spoke the wisest words. The only lines spoken that have any relevance to the race are spoken by the pineapple and the hare. All of the other spoken lines are either wild speculation about a pineapple where even in a world where pineapples can talk, the very idea of one winning a race is completely absurd, or they are a stupid comment made when the owl fails to grasp the concept of expressions in language.

To me, the moral of the story is simply a red herring of sorts that tries to trick the reader into seeing some deeper meaning behind the owl's statement that isn't there. The "morals" of stories are seen as infallible; they are always correct and make perfect sense. The fact that pineapples don't have sleeves, while being correct, does not make any sense and has no relevance to the story.

The hare doesn't speculate on whether this is some devious trick by the pineapple; he knows that the pineapple winning the race is an impossibility and readily says so. He is the only one who relies on facts to determine the possible outcome of the race.

This might have made some sort of sense if the answers were to be given in a short essay where you could explain your reasoning for the choices. As multiple choice answers it should have no bearing on test scores at all.

These questions are clearly designed to pinpoint people's cognitive functional preferences.
The S/N and T/F lines are crystal clear.


MBTI is taking over the world.

Originally Posted by Zanimus

This might have made some sort of sense if the answers were to be given in a short essay where you could explain your reasoning for the choices. As multiple choice answers it should have no bearing on test scores at all.

I actually thought this was a free response question until I read the article. XD