Read the text below carefully and then answer the questions. If in doubt, reread the text before answering: this is not a test of your memory.
For some context read this post.
Fire drill
In the room, the students are waiting, casting distracted glances at the geography maps hanging on the wall. The teacher is late. Finally, the door opens, and Mr. Latour comes in, interrupting the boys’ daydreams. “Fire drill,” he says. “You have fifteen minutes to gather at the assembly point.”
At 11:15, five students are missing. The geography teacher quickly ascends the stairs of the building, taking them two at a time, in search of the latecomers. He finds them calmly seated on the terrace of the 5th floor, observing the chaos in the courtyard below.
The questionnaire
#1. The scene takes place in a school.
We don’t know… the fact that students are gathered in a room doesn’t necessarily make the building a school. They could very well be in a restaurant waiting to have a meal with their teacher.
#2. The students are waiting for the geography class to begin.
We don’t know… the fact that geography maps are hanging on the wall doesn’t mean that the students are there for a geography lesson. As we saw in the previous question, it’s not even certain that they’re in a school.
#3. Mr. Latour is the geography teacher.
We don’t know. The teacher is late… and Mr. Latour comes in… We don’t know who the students are waiting for. Mr. Latour could just as easily be the janitor or the person in charge of the fire drill.
#4. The establishment is a boys’ school.
We don’t know… the text only mentions boys, but it does not explicitly says that girls are not in the same group.
#5. The fire drill starts at 11 a.m.
We don’t know… it is not said if the students respected the 15 minutes deadline to gather at the assembly point.
#6. The building has five floors.
Yes. We know that the building has at least five floors. This one is tricky… the question does not ask if the building has five floors only !
#7. The assembly point is in the courtyard.
We don’t know… the chaos observed by the boys may be caused by other persons than the students who are possibly gathered somewhere else.
Results
Mmmh… well done. You avoided all the traps. You probably already made a similar exercise in the past, didn’t you?
Don’t worry this only proves that you are a human communicating like a human. Inferences are not a bad thing as they help us to deduct a lot from minimalistic information. It’s only good to be aware that, from time to time, inferences may be sources of misunderstanding as your interlocutor does not necessarily make same inferences as you do. This is especially true if their cultural or professional background is different than yours.
Special friendly note to IT-people: no, human beings do not communicate in TCP/IP.
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