More tales from the exam room. I used the same format for the final exam in oral English as I had for the midterm – each student had a minute or two to tell a story about the images in a New Yorker cartoon with the caption removed. Many of the best stories were prompted by a sketch of a farm field with two hens in the foreground and four others in the background. In one tale, one hen challenges the other to an egg-laying contest. In another, a chicken couple laments that Christmas is coming and they haven’t taught their four chicks to dance and sing. On a grimmer note, the two hens decide to take their chicks and migrate because pollution is destroying their food supply and the health of their children! A picture of a man in a hospital bed talking with his doctor brought out more than one story about difficulty raising money to pay for medical treatment. And, once again, a window opened on traditional Chinese culture and beliefs. One cartoon showed two middle aged women gazing at a man’s framed photo. In most stories, the man was a deceased relative. One girl related that the women were sisters, one of them the widow the man in the photo. They were about to set out to find a new husband for the widow, and were seeking the advice and blessing of the late husband.

Perhaps you’re thinking that it would be more fair and objective to use the same cartoon for all students, and you are right. But I prize my sanity, and I heard 270 of these speaking performances in just four days. In any case, the news would spread like a wildfire among the freshmen, and many would gain an unfair advantage over the first ones to see the cartoon.