Thursday, September 20, 2012

Mensa Rescinded

On a long flight across country recently, I found a flawed question in the “Menza Quiz” in American Way magazine:


4. To the best of our knowledge, only one good English word can be made from all of the letters in the word rescinded, using each letter only once. What is it?

The intended answer is “discerned,” and I knew that. But there is another “good English word can be made from all of the letters in the word rescinded, using each letter only once” – “rescinded.” I realize that I’m being finicky here (probably overly so), and no doubt my three years spent as a Test Specialist at ACT and 30+ years as an English teacher make me particularly aware of such errors in tests, but the question would be better expressed as “only one other English word” (I’d not only add the word “other” but also delete “good,” as I’m not sure what the difference is between a “good English word” and a “bad English word”).
Yes, I’m picking nits. It’s a professional flaw, one my students regularly find frustrating. But we all, I would hope, have our little fixations. How else can we, even if only fleetingly, feel better than others? Especially better than “to the best of [the] knowledge” of the writers of the “Menza Quiz.”

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