An American publisher has compiled a list of "the worst analogies ever written by pupils at US high schools". They include the following.
The most literal-minded entry reads:
- He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
- John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
- The hailstones leapt from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
- Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6.35pm travelling at 55mph, the other from Topeka at 4.19pm at a speed of 35mph.
Courtesy The Week.
6 comments:
I quite like the one though about the 'six-foot-three-inch tree'.
I have only just started reading your blog. it is reallyy quite good.
Will try to comment more often.
I don't believe this post though. I taught at a US university once upon a time and none of the students could write a sentence let alone an essay of any kind.
I agree with James; I think number one is really rather good.
And I think number four is super -- we've all been in relationships like that, surely, but never have we described them with such deadpan humour (even if it is unintentional, which somehow I doubt).
Hot maggots is my pick of the bunch. It's that "when" which does it for me.
Health tip: maggots should be fried in olive oil rather than grease.
Check out http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/16/AR2007031600999.html
All the "students" are actually respectable adults, some even work for Dept. of Defense!
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