<p>On second thought, the answer to the question about which animal was wisest should be, “The pineapple, except that pineapples aren’t animals.”</p>
<p>I don’t understand the complaints about the story or the questions. Why shouldn’t 8th graders be able to read an interpret a story like this? What am I missing?</p>
<p>Because it is a silly story that stupid adults are trying to make into something it is not. At least, that’s my complaint. When the test makers try to get cutesy, it just doesn’t work well.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong … I love standardized tests. But some of them are getting weird. I sat in a meeting where the district’s testing expert explained that standardized tests are wrong because there is more than one way to look at things … and she proceeded to use a math problem as an example. I spoke up, expressing my view that while students may have different ways of looking at things, elementary school math problems only have one answer … so I couldn’t quite understand what her example had to do with anything. </p>
<p>Sometimes I feel like the old man yelling at everyone to get off his grass. I am old and cranky.</p>
<p>I gave my daughter (a high school senior) the passage and the questions–she immediately identified the two problem questions, but had no problem with the rest. She also got the “correct” answers to the problem questions, but thought there was no good answer. She loved the story though, and wants to read more Pinkwater.</p>
<p>“Better yet, we should abandon altogether the multiple-choice tests, which are in vogue not because they are an effective tool for judging teachers or students but because they are an efficient means of producing data. Instead, we should move toward extensive written exams, in which students could grapple with literary passages and books they have read in class, along with assessments of students’ reports and projects from throughout the year. This kind of system would be less objective and probably more time-consuming for administrators, but it would also free teachers from endless test preparation and let students focus on real learning.”</p>
<p>Thank you mathmom. Exactly.</p>
<p>I’ve read the actual passage about the pineapple and the hare twice carefully now. I have a B.A. from Williams, and advanced degrees from Oxford and the University of Chicago, and I am not sure that I got all the answers to the questions right. </p>
<p>For a rollicking yet at the same time extremely sobering read from an insider, see Todd Farleys Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry. Sausalito, CA: PoliPoint Press, 2009.</p>
<p>“A man has $35000 to buy a yacht. They are sold only in 10 foot long sections, at $10,000 per section. How big of a yacht can he purchase?
A) 30 ft
B) 35 ft.
C) 40 ft
D. Not enough information”</p>
<p>600 ft. It’s called “leverage”. Anyone who says 30 ft will never make it out of the 99%.</p>
<p>I was thinking yachts aren’t sold in sections…</p>
<p>Sounds like IB, from my limited understanding of IB (responding to post #45).</p>
<p>mini, your analysis is correct, so the answer is D = not enough information. We don’t know how much the bank will lend him with a $35,000 down payment. Perhaps he can get a federally insured loan.</p>
<p>On the California STAR test last year there was a passage that had the phrase “totally swank” in it. There was a question about it, and the correct answer was that it needed to be rephrased to something else. It was a valid question. </p>
<p>But their reason for using “totally swank” was that they wanted us to recognize that we can’t use “popular language” in our writing. </p>
<p>Because “totally swank” was definitely popular in 2011.</p>
<p>cartera, did you read the story and the questions? Which animal in your opinion was the wisest? Why did the animals eat the pineapple? I didn’t see the answer to either of those questions addressed in the story.</p>
<p>Yes, I read the story and the questions. The owl was the wisest. He knew the pineapple had no sleeves. None of the other animals said anything demonstrating any knowledge. They ate the pineapple because they were annoyed because the pineapple tricked them. There was no evidence of any other reason for them to eat it.</p>
<p>Edited to add - I abhor the reliance on standardized tests. I think it is ruining the educational experience of our children. That being said, I don’t really have a problem with this story and questions.</p>
<p>I thought they ate the pineapple because it was a fruit.</p>
<p>And I bet those Mississippi River kids would be happy to tell you that the chance of $35,000 buying you anything that could be classified as a yacht are pretty slim.</p>
<p>H & I & our S always liked MOST standardized tests, until they added the writing section that made the already long test into a grueling endurance & stamina exam. That said, none of us ever liked nonsensical questions that have too many answers that are not quite right and several that are somewhat correct. This passage & answers definitely qualify and would confuse and perplex most folks who read it, as it has most of those who have read it on CC.</p>
<p>There is no reason for the animals to be annoyed at a sedentary pineapple. It wasn’t doing anything interesting, some time had passed, they got hungry, so they ate it.</p>
<p>I’m siding with hungry, not annoyed. My H said the opposite. We’re both fairly bright, and educated even more than an 8th grader. Anyone who attributes “wisdom” to any entity in the story hasn’t read it well. It’s obviously a satire on that kind of fable, and to ask straight questions as if the whole thing isn’t a send-up is ludicrous.</p>
<p>It’s the kind of set-up that begs for snarky questions and answers. The testers totally didn’t get it. (Why am I not surprised.)</p>
<p>Could have been good for a creative writing prompt, however.</p>
<p>
I think this is the answer that would have been most true to Pinkwater’s intention.</p>
<p>After all, they could have eaten each other.</p>