Quote:
Originally Posted by darklord700
It is a poorly worded question.
"Cheryl tells Albert and Bernard seperately the month and the day of her birthday respectively."
It can be argued that this is an invalid English sentence because respectively means "in the order given".
Is "Albert and Bernard" the order or "Month and Day" the order?
This sentence could simply be worded as "Cheryl tells Albert only the month and Bernard only the day".
I'll be really PO if I come across this question during exam worded in its original way.
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But I don't believe anyone is confused or making assumptions on the part that you quoted. It may not get top marks in English class, but it is relatively clear that Albert was told the month and Bernard the day even if it takes a second read through. Similarly, everyone can figure out what it actually means when it starts the problem out "Albert and Bernard just
become friends with Cheryl"
While you're right the sentence could be simplified to "Cheryl tells Albert only the month" I believe it's intentionally not done that way as keeping track of who has the day and who has the month is part of the problem, if minor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by polak
The fact that there is a million and a half articles about the validity of the question pretty much proves that it's poorly worded. Hell right off the bat saying "Month and Day, Respectively" is much more confusing than saying Albert was told the Month and Bernard was told the day. Right off the bat something I would never imagine appearing on a Canadian diploma exam.
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I can't recall the diploma, but I can certainly recall my math and science classes using "respectively" in very similar manner like this all the time. Part of the word problem was figuring out the problem in the first place, proper variables and the like.