本文描寫作者應(yīng)邀為老同學(xué)解決一起與學(xué)生的物理題“糾紛”。學(xué)生不同意單一的答案,覺得自己應(yīng)該得到高分而不是零分,于是和老師協(xié)議邀請第三方公正的我解決問題。

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Some time ago, I received a call from Jim, a colleague of mine, who teaches physics. He asked me if I would do him a favor and be the referee on the grading of an examination question. I said sure, but I did not quite understand why he should need my help. He told me that he was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, but the student protested that it wasn't fair. He insisted that he deserved a perfect score if the system were not set up against the student. Finally, they agreed to take the matter to an impartial instructor. And I was selected. I went to my colleague's office and read the examination question. It said: "Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of the barometer." The student had answered: "Take the barometer to the top of the building, tie a long rope to it, lower the barometer to the street, and then bring it up and measure the length of the rope. The length of the rope will be the height of the building."
不久之前,我接到我大學(xué)同事吉姆的來電,他現(xiàn)在是一名物理老師。他希望我?guī)退粋€忙,給他其中一道考試題目的答案進(jìn)行定奪。我答應(yīng)了,但我不明白為什么他會需要我的幫忙。他說本來打算給他的一個學(xué)生那道物理題零分,但是那個學(xué)生堅持說這么做不公平。他堅持說如果沒有“標(biāo)準(zhǔn)答案只有一個”這種制度,他肯定可以得到滿分。最后,他們達(dá)成一致意見找一個不偏不倚的行家來裁決這件事。于是他們選擇了我。 我去到我同事的辦公室看了看那個問題。問題是這樣的:“只給你一個氣壓計,你怎樣運(yùn)用這把氣壓計測量出一棟樓房的高度?!蹦莻€學(xué)生是這么回答的:“把氣壓計帶到樓頂,然后在氣壓計上綁個長繩,用繩子慢慢將氣壓計從樓頂放下到一樓,然后再把氣壓計扯上來量出繩子的長度。這段繩子的長度就是樓房的高度了。