Part 33 (1/2)

SCORING. The test is pa.s.sed if _three of the five_ words are satisfactorily defined. The definition need not be strictly logical nor the language elegant. It is sufficient if the definition shows that the meaning of the word is known. Definitions which define by means of an ill.u.s.tration are acceptable. The following are samples of satisfactory and unsatisfactory responses:--

(a) _Pity_

_Satisfactory._ ”To be sorry for some one.” ”To feel compa.s.sion.” ”To have sympathy for a person.” ”To feel bad for some one.” ”It means you help a person out and don't like to have him suffer.” ”To have a feeling for people when they are treated wrong.” ”If anybody gets hurt real bad you pity them.”

”It's when you feel sorry for a tramp and give him something to eat.” ”If some one is in trouble and you know how it feels to be in that condition, you pity him.” ”You see something that's wrong and have your feeling aroused.”

Of 130 correct responses, 85, or 65 per cent, defined _pity_ as ”to feel sorry for some one,” or words to that effect. Less than 10 per cent defined by means of ill.u.s.tration.

_Unsatisfactory._ ”To think of the poor.” ”To be good to others.” ”To help.” ”It means sorrow.” ”Mercy.” ”To cheer people up.” ”It means 'What a pity!'” ”To be ashamed.” ”To be sick or poor.” ”It's when you break something.”

Apart from inability to reply, which accounts for nearly one fourth of the failures, there is no predominant type of unsatisfactory response.

(b) _Revenge_

_Satisfactory._ ”To get even with some one.” ”To get back on him.” ”To do something to the one who has done something to you.” ”To hurt them back.” ”To pay it back,” or ”Do something back.” ”To do something mean in return.” ”To square up with a person.” ”When somebody slaps you, you slap back.” ”You kill a person if he does something to you.”

The expression ”to get even” was found in 42 per cent of 120 correct answers; ”to pay it back,” or ”To do something back,” in 20 per cent; ”To get back on him,” in 17 per cent. About 8 per cent were ill.u.s.trations.

_Unsatisfactory._ ”To be mad.” ”You try to hurt them.” ”To fight.” ”You hate a person.” ”To kill them.” ”It means hateful.”

”To try again.” ”To think evil of some one.” ”To hate some one who has done you wrong.” ”To let a person off.” ”To go away from something.”

Inability to reply accounts for a little over 40 per cent of the failures.

(c) _Charity_

_Satisfactory._ ”To give to the poor.” ”To help those who are needy.” ”It is charity if you are poor and somebody helps you.”

”To give to somebody without pay.”

Of 110 correct replies, 72 per cent were worded substantially like the first or second given above.

_Unsatisfactory._ ”A person who helps the poor.” ”A place where poor people get food and things.” ”It is a good life.” ”To be happy.” ”To be poor.” ”Charity is being treated good.” ”It is to be charitable.” ”Charity is selling something that is not worth much.” ”It means to be good” or ”to be kind.”

When the last named response is given, we should say: ”_Explain what you mean._” If this brings an amplification of the response to ”It means to do things for the poor,” or the equivalent, the score is _plus_. ”Charity means love” is also _minus_ if the statement cannot be further explained and is merely rote memory of the pa.s.sage in the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians. Simply ”To help” or ”To give” is unsatisfactory. Half of the failures are due to inability to reply.

(d) _Envy_

_Satisfactory._ ”You envy some one who has something you want.”

”It's the way you feel when you see some one with something nicer than you have.” ”It's when a poor girl sees a rich girl with nice dresses and things.” ”You hate some one because they've got something you want.” ”Jealousy” (satisfactory if subject can explain what _jealousy_ means; otherwise it is _minus_). ”It's when you see a person better off than you are.”

Nearly three fourths of the correct responses say in substance, ”You envy a person who has something you want.” Most of the others are concrete ill.u.s.trations.

_Unsatisfactory._ ”To hate some one,” or simply ”To hate.” ”You don't like 'em.” ”Bad feeling toward any one.” ”To be a great man or woman.” ”Not to be nice to people.” ”What we do to our enemies.”

Inability to respond accounts for 55 per cent of the failures.

(e) _Justice_

_Satisfactory._ ”To give people what they deserve.” ”It means that everybody is treated the same way, whether he is rich or poor.” ”It's what you get when you go to court.” ”If one does something and gets punished, that's justice.” ”To do the square thing.” ”To give everybody his dues.” ”Let every one have what's coming to him.” ”To do the right thing by any one.” ”If two people do the same thing and they let one go without punis.h.i.+ng, that is not justice.”