27 August 2007

Who Wrote These Questions?
In the sample 20 (of 200 possible) questions for prospective citizens, I’d do pretty well, but I truly wonder about the phrasing. Look at question 5, for example, “What is the floral emblem of Australia?” Floral emblem? You mean “national flower,” maybe? Who talks like that? Question 7 reads “In what city is the Parliament House of the Commonwealth Parliament located?” What pedant wrote that? Q17: “In Autralia, everyone is free to practice the religion of their choice, or practice no religion: true or false?” How does one practice no religion, watching football on t.v. instead of going to church? Maybe being able to parse the questions is part of the test.

3 comments:

Bill said...

So what is the floral emblem of Australia? And why bother? Just slap pictures of kangaroos on everything, I say.

Greg said...

Sorry, no citizenship for you.

Anonymous said...

How about a eucalyptus tree as floral emblem? Oh, wait. How many different kinds of those are there?

Never mind. I vote with Bill.