...otherwise known as 'geek humor.'
My Intro to Everything recently took an exam in which they needed to, among other things, display some knowledge of human evolution. Because of their large numbers and my small brain, part of this exam was multiple-choice.
Here is the question:
Which of the following hominins first controlled fire?
-Homo erectus
-Homo sapiens sapiens
-Homo habilis
-Homo heidelbergensis
-Bufo marenis
More than 10% chose...you guessed it...Bufo marenis, aka: the common cane toad.
Funny..."homo" and "homi" look similar, do they not? But, it MUST be that other one that doesn't look AT ALL related! It must!
* sigh *
I gave a multiple choice exam once in which several students responded that necrophilia was "the sexual attraction to a woman's neck."
ReplyDeleteI can just see how some of my students would react to this question: "Huh huh, you said Homo Erectus..."
ReplyDeleteHey, is there a prize if we're the 500,000th visitor? Does anyone look at the hit counter at the VERY bottom of the page like I do?
ReplyDelete@Froderick: Yesterday I showed part of a film about the Amish that mentioned "Intercourse, Pennsylvania." And you can bet that I thought very seriously about NOT showing it...
ReplyDeleteWhen I teach Ancient Egypt, I always put "necrophilia" as one of the answer choices on the test. Every semester it is guaranteed that around 5% of the students picked that one. When I asked one student why she chose it, she admitted to not knowing what it meant but that it sounded like something that could be the answer. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteELS. Don't even bother. It's mine.
ReplyDeleteBufo marenis, dreadlock rasta
I've been known to put multiple-choice questions on exams with one right answer and four comically wrong ones, and then mix up the answers on different versions of the exam. For example: "The mascot for our own Euphoric State University is the: A. [actual boring mascot]. B. Fightin' Cheezy Poofs. C. Giant Purple Snorklewackers. D. Dead Milkmen. E. Whan that Aprille." And another version of the exam will have B as the right answer, and A will be the Fightin' Cheezy Poofs, or what have you.
ReplyDeleteI've caught several mindless plagiarists with this before -- those who just copy their neighbor's answers blindly. "You say your grade is 18%? Wow, HOW did that happen? Man, you even thought our school mascot was the hermaphroditic flatworm Pseudobiceros? I'm so sorry, but. . ."
@BlackDog: That's nothing. There's a town in Newfoundland called Dildo. Swear to gods.
ReplyDeleteFolks, there's a town in Austria called Fucking. They are sick to the teeth of grinning English-speaking foreigners, and of how many signs they steal.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, never say "Intercourse," unless you mean the town in PA.
Oh, I never say intercourse, I say f*cking. As in "all humans mate, but different cultures go about f*cking in different ways."
ReplyDeleteNo longer do my evaluations center on my fashion sense or my "weird accent." No, now they include "Prof drops the f-bomb."
F. For fabulous. And for failing your asses.
A person I acquainted myself with in the past moved to Surprise, AZ. A mutual acquaintance just looked him up on Facebook. She asked if Surprise, AZ was some sort of joke. I said, "Nope. It's the name of the town that asshole lives in." (The man was/is a total asshole. Of course, I no longer acquaint with him.)
ReplyDelete-Mathsquatch Out.