The Pineapple and the Hare. Simple reading comprehension question BAFFLES NY educators.

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz

Which animal spoke the wisest words?

A The hare

B The moose

C The crow

D The owl

A. the hare was the wisest when he mocked the pineapple for challenging him to a race.

Everyone seems to think the rabbit was wisest because he mocked the pineapple when challenged to a race. I disagree. The rabbit agreed to run a Twenty-six mile race against a plant with no means of locomotion.

After two hours of hard running he discovered the pineapple hadn't even moved from the starting line and had been eaten by the other animals. Seems like an awful waste of energy to me and he didn't even get a decent meal out of it.

"...could speak English just like you and me."

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH

Originally posted by FortAnthem
>snip<
Everyone seems to think the rabbit was wisest because he mocked the pineapple when challenged to a race. I disagree. The rabbit agreed to run a Twenty-six mile race against a plant with no means of locomotion.

After two hours of hard running he discovered the pineapple hadn't even moved from the starting line and had been eaten by the other animals. Seems like an awful waste of energy to me and he didn't even get a decent meal out of it.

An amazing analogy can be inferred... between the Republicans (the pineapple) and the Democrats (the rabbit).
Who wastes the most energy to go nowhere? Did I type that out loud?

B, C, D, A, D, C

the owl was the wisest for calling the pineapple out on not having a trick and the animals ate the pineapple because they were annoyed because they thought pineapple had some plan to win the race.....refusing to use logic to acknowledge that pineapples cant move....
the moral was to actually think about things for yourself and not be moved by the confidence of others
it would have been impossible for the pineapple to win but the other animals were so easily swayed by its confidence

Originally posted by abecedarian

An amazing analogy can be inferred... between the Republicans (the pineapple) and the Democrats (the rabbit).
Who wastes the most energy to go nowhere? Did I type that out loud?

Isn't it amazing how much this mangled version of an absurd fable can make us all think so hard and come to such wild conclusions.

I think the fact that this question inspires so much critical thinking is proof of its value in the test.

They should throw out all those teachers who couldn't figure it out and complained so loudly instead. They obviously don't know what they're doing.

the wisest is the hare. because he got the hell out of that weird story as fast as he could.

they ate the pineapple because they were angry. they had planed to eat the hare over charcoal, but the stupid pineapple had to challenge the hare to a race.

Originally posted by FortAnthem


Beginning with paragraph 4, in what order are the events in the story told?


B In the order in which the events happen



The animals ate the pineapple most likely because they were



C Annoyed



Which animal spoke the wisest words?



D The owl

Before the race, how did the animals feel toward the pineapple?
A Suspicious



What would have happened if the animals had decided to cheer for the hare?

D Would have been happpy.

last one is C. didn't copy and paste it all apparently.

All of the answers make sense...not sure why teachers would be confused by it, well I have a few guesses. Although that first question could've been worded better.

I could see kids getting confused by this, probably not a smart move by whoever created the exam.

There's a reason most standardized tests say the BEST answer, because they usually have multiple true answers.

reply to post by FortAnthem


Maybe the pineapple did have a trick up its sleeve.t. Pineapple knew it could not win the race so must have wanted to loose and be eaten. Why would pineapple want to be eaten..to help propogation...

These fruits are collections of seeds that have formed from different ovaries within a single blossom. Each of the seeds has a matured ovary around it, which is the juice filled portion that animals enjoy. Multiple fruits is a group that consists of a large number of individual fruits that have formed from separate blossoms. The fruit are closely packed together on the plant. Pineapple, figs and mulberries all belong to this group

reference.yourdictionary.com...

Think it was a good question. Peeps want life to be black and white it is not....

reply to post by purplemer


youre over thinking it
its a good answer but youre supposed to work with the information provided
if that was the correct answer the story would have included information about how pineapples propagate themselves

Each and every principal and teacher needs to be fired from their job.
Really? Not sure what the answers were?

Teachers, principals and parents contacted by The News said they weren’t sure what the answers were.

Oddly enough this weekend I was talking to my father in law who's from Equador.
He was telling me that in Equador he was taking Calculus when he was in school.
Before he got to high school.

As a country we are so screwed.

reply to post by grey580


agreed.... chances are they didnt even know what story or questions were being discussed

i doubt they even looked at the test before or after handing it out to students
if it was such a big deal and none of them really knew.... why did they use that test or not tell the students the question was invalid and didnt need answered....
the truth is they probably didnt even look at the test and are just agreeing with whoever decided to make a big stink about it to avoid confrontation

in my opinion there need to be more questions like these ones
people need to learn critical thinking skills and not just how to regurgitate whatever they hear or read
information is worthless if you dont know how to apply it

reply to post by UFO1414


What??? You were the first one to say the hare was the wisest and you only had one star??? The hare said he'd win, knew the pineapple couldn't win, and then had some good exercise. A second star for you for being the first with the correct answer to that question..

reply to post by FortAnthem

Everyone seems to think the rabbit was wisest because he mocked the pineapple when challenged to a race. I disagree. The rabbit agreed to run a Twenty-six mile race against a plant with no means of locomotion.

it isn't his mockery that makes him wise, but his accurate prediction that he would win easily.

the story doesn't say the pineapple has no means of locomotion, and the hare probably joined in on the feast. they didn't eat the pineapple until after the hare won.

Originally posted by antonia
I found an interview with the author of the passage
blogs.wsj.com...
He says that there are no answers.

Haha, reading that interview was enlightenening. Sounds like somebody I'd like to have a nonsensical conversation which means something but nothing specifically at the same time.

Thanks for posting that link!

Oddly enough this weekend I was talking to my father in law who's from Equador. He was telling me that in Equador he was taking Calculus when he was in school. Before he got to high school. As a country we are so screwed.

reply to post by grey580


That is impressive, but not sure it is a good practice. The calculus is the " Applications " part of math curriculum, and in my personal belief, it should be taken when the kids are more mature and have more real world content, in that way they can appreciate it more and have a better comprehension as to why it is so important to understand if you want to be a professional.

reply to post by Bob Sholtz


except we all know what a pineapple is and that they cant move.... it would be more than safe to assume it cant unless the story specifically says otherwise
they make it a point that it cant move by saying it hasnt moved by the end of the race.... and that the other animals eat it (not mentioning any attempt at escape on the part of the pineapple)
the rabbit knew it could win yes but it was tricked into running a race against a PINEAPPLE
the owl however knew the pineapple had no tricks and that there could be no race ...the rabbit would just be running by itself

reply to post by sirhumperdink

No, the owl agreed, all the animals agreed, that the pineapple would win because it had a trick to play, and were cheering for it to win. All the animals were sure that the pineapple would win, or else why had it challenged the hare? The owl included. Stupid owl. The hare was the only one, along with the pineapple, who knew the score the whole time.

reply to post by Bob Sholtz


The real question is whether the pineapple ever intended to present any challenge to the rabbit in the first place.

“I want to race you. Twenty-six miles, and may the best animal win."

It was probably the pineapple's intention to confirm the hare's superiority which is why he said "may the best animal win".

Its funny how much we can read into this nonsensical question.

BTW: I agree with the folks who think the whole thing was a plot by the pineapple to spread its evil seed.

reply to post by Aleister


"The pineapple has some trick up its sleeve," a moose said.

Pineapples don't have sleeves, an owl said

thats all the owl says the whole time

and iirc there is no blanket statement saying that all the animals agree (they do agree that considering its confidence this would make sense) that it had a trick
only that the animals ate the pineapple

so i suppose it could be a joke but then again maybe not

reply to post by getreadyalready


I beg to differ. Here are some of the assignments I remember reading in public school, here in the United States. I went back after I made the list and added the grades I think I read them in, but I am sure my memory is somewhat innacurate.

Selected Works of Rudyard Kipling - "Rikki Tikki Tavi" was popular - 4th grade
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - 7th grade
Julie and the Wolves - 6th grade
The Old Man and the Sea - 4th grade
The Scarlet Letter - The legthy intro was boring, but then everyone got into the story. Some classes had "Dorian Gray" after this, but not my class. - 8th grade
The Raven - 9th grade
The Cask of Amontillado - 9th grade
Of Mice and Men - 10th grade - We read aloud and acted out the parts on this one.
The Endless Steppe - 6th grade
Helen Keller - 6th grade
Diary of Anne Frank - 6th grade
The Crucible - 10th grade
1984 - 9th grade
Inherit the Wind - 10th grade
The Giver - 5th grade
Fahrenheit 451 - 7th grade
The Chocolate War - 7th grade
Catch 22 - 11th grade
Moby Dick - 9th grade
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - 11th grade
The Bell Jar -12th grade
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - 8th grade
Blades of Grass - 12th grade
Lord of the Flies - 9th grade
Animal Farm - 9th grade
Treasure Island - 7th grade
The Time Machine - 11th grade
Our Town - 12th grade
Romeo and Juliet (I remember the boys loved this one because after we read the play, we watched the movie and they liked the girl who played Juliet) - 7th grade
A Midsummer Night's Dream - 8th grade
The Merchant of Venice - 12th grade

I know there are a bunch of others I can't remember, and there are a lot more books that I read just for fun. I was in AP English, so I had more reading assignments than the kids who weren't, but they were still assigned at least half of these. Even today, our kids (my two boys and my step-daughter) were assigned many of these. So, enough of this nonsense about there being no critical reading assignments in the American public school system.