BBC english and maths quizes

[jack]

Go and see. The quizzes had surprisingly few bits we took issue with.

English: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4246472.stm

18/20 :( I am teh[1] bad speller. One was a complete spelling mistake because I'm bad.

The other was the hyphen question. OK, it should have been obvious, but I thought hyphen compound modifiers were only necessary when confusion would result. When *necessary* I even use n-dashes and m-dashes to denote levels of binding, but he'd hardly likely lost a long brother, had he?

Also, the simile question. It was obvious what they meant, but dictionary.com says "A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared". If "hands cold as ice" means literally below freezing at one atmosphere, does that count? Obviously "eyes cold as ice" would, but is "he was as tall as a lampost" a simile??

And the Jane's question. As someone who habitually and correctly says Jens' house, I thought their example was bad. If they'd said 'more likely to be correct' ok, but they said 'correct'. The same problem often applies to headlines -- sometimes scientists do do something amusing to a hononym; but these were ok as far as I can see.

Maths: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4263590.stm

See http://www.livejournal.com/users/ewx/313391.html for discussion of flaws, etc. Do use a calculator or google or at least paper if you want to. (I think google would be good at these. IT IS BECOMING ALIVE! :))

He said "20/20 or I'd have fallen on my sword" but I prefer 19 because one of their questions was wrong :) Not that I did.

[1] Irony.

Comments

[ewx.livejournal.com]

TBH it's not left the BBC looking like the most mathematically literate of organizations...

[yrieithydd.livejournal.com]

I got 20! Admittedly I was helped by seeing that you'd said something about hyphens. AIUI, the rule is that when something like long lost is used as an adjective it should be hyphenated, but I think the rules on hyphenation are being relaxed.

I did think to myself on Janes' v Jane's house B unless there is someone called Janes (pronounced as though it were Spanish!)

I haven't tried the Maths yet.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

The complete OED just defines simile as a "comparison of one thing with another, esp. as an ornament in poetry or rhetoric", and that's how I've always understood the term.

[yrieithydd.livejournal.com]

I just got 20/20. What was the question which was wrong?

More comments on my LJ

[bachlover.livejournal.com]

Now, I should have read your post properly before trying the questions. I got the hyphen one wrong too...:-( I have a feeling that's how I'd have written that sentence. So much still to learn.

[minipoppy.livejournal.com]

I think it is getting to be more and more a personal thing/house style thing about hyphens. My company is against them in their books. I worked on a process of deduction - none of the other punctuation marks were needed so I figured it must be a hyphen.

[sonicdrift.livejournal.com]

Calculator? Pah! And you call yourself a mathmo!

M reckons I cheated by using paper.