mardi 23 juin 2015

Exam candidates fail to cope!

The exam season is upon us and this year's would-be bacheliers have taken their English paper, based on an extract from the novel Atonement. One of the questions asked how the character "was coping" with the situation and this has caused howls of protest from candidates indignant that they should be expected to know this word. I actually agree with them on this point: the paper is supposed to be testing their comprehension of the text, not of the questions being asked, and I really think it would have been wise to phrase the question differently.
What, however, appalls me, is that one of the many candidates who has taken to Twitter to complain has posted a screen shot from an online dictionary.


Well no wonder he doesn't understand!
A "chaperon" is (amongst other things) a term used in building as in a"coping stone".
After 13 years of schooling (including English lessons for at least half of that time) this chap still hasn't learned the precautions necessary when looking a word up in the dictionary - such as knowing whether you are looking for a noun or a verb!

Aucun commentaire:

Enregistrer un commentaire