Today I’m cleaning out my office in readiness for entry to blissful (semi) retirement. Marilyn has warned me not to bring home too much stuff from work, so I’m being brutal in throwing out old books, papers, reports, etc.

Whilst rummaging in my rubbish, I came across a test which I’d like to share with you (at the risk of breaching copyright – please contact me if you know the originator!). From (my increasingly vague) memory, it came from the UKOU, and a couple of decades ago it was doing the rounds of distance education workshops/presentations … and unless I’m mistaken, the record for completion is 1 minute and 45 seconds (now there’s a challenge for you)!

It’s a ‘content-free’ multiple choice test, and if you haven’t seen it before, give it a go:

Each of the questions in the following set has a logical or ‘best’ answer from its corresponding multiple choice answer set. By best answer is meant the answer that has the highest probability of being the correct one in accordance with the information at your disposal. There is no particular clue in the spelling of the words and there are no hidden meanings.

1. The purpose of the cluss in furmpaling is to remove

a. cluss-prags

b. tremails

c. cloughs

d. pluomots

2. Trassig is true when

a. lump trasses the von

b. the viscal flans, if the viskal is donwil or zortil

c. the belgo fruls

d. dissels lisk easily

3. The sigia frequently overfesks the trelsum because

a. all sigias are melliuos

b. all sigias are always votial

c. the trelsum is usually tarious

d. no trelsa are feskable

4. The fribbled breg will minter best with an

a. derst

b. morst

c. sorter

d. ignu

5. The reasons for tristal doss are

a. the sabs foped and the doths tinzed

b. the dredges roted with the crest

c. few rakobs were accepted in sluth

d. most of the polats were thonced

6. Which of the following is/are always present when trossels are being gruven?

a. rint and vost

b. vost

c. shum and vost

d. vost and plone

7. The mintering function of the ignu is most effectively carried out in connection with

a. a razma tol

b. the groshing stantol

c. the fribbled breg

d. a frailly sush

8.

a.

b.

c.

d.

So, how did you go? I won’t provide the answers here … wait for the next post:-)