What's the answer?

[JjulianSr]

According to the NY Times, the following question is taken directly from the New York State Department of Education 8th Grade Reading Assessment, 2012 edition. I'd love to know the answer to each of the two questions at the end of the passage, along with your justification for why the answer is correct:


... The Pineapple and the Hare ...

In the olden times, animals could speak English, just like you and me. There was a lovely enchanted forest that flourished with a bunch of these magical animals. One day, a hare was relaxing by a tree. All of a sudden, he noticed a pineapple sitting near him.

The hare, being magical and all, told the pineapple, “Um, hi.”

The pineapple could speak English too. “I challenge you to a race! Whoever makes it across the forest and back first wins a ninja! And a lifetime’s supply of toothpaste!” The hare looked at the pineapple strangely, but agreed to the race.

The next day, the competition was coming into play. All the animals in the forest (but not the pineapples, for pineapples are immobile) arranged a finish/start line in between two trees. The coyote placed the pineapple in front of the starting line, and the hare was on his way.

Everyone on the sidelines was bustling about and chatting about the obvious prediction that the hare was going to claim the victory (and the ninja and the toothpaste). Suddenly, the crow had a revolutionary realization.

“AAAAIEEH! Friends! I have an idea to share! The pineapple has not challenged our good companion, the hare, to just a simple race! Surely the pineapple must know that he CANNOT MOVE! He obviously has a trick up his sleeve!” exclaimed the crow.

The moose spoke up.

“Pineapples don’t have sleeves.”

“You fool! You know what I mean! I think that the pineapple knows we’re cheering for the hare, so he is planning to pull a trick on us, so we look foolish when he wins! Let’s sink the pineapple’s intentions, and let’s cheer for the stupid fruit!” the crow passionately proclaimed. The other animals cheered, and started chanting, “FOIL THE PLAN! FOIL THE PLAN! FOIL THE PLAN!”

A few minutes later, the hare arrived. He got into place next to the pineapple, who sat there contently. The monkey blew the tree-bark whistle, and the race began! The hare took off, sprinting through the forest, and the pineapple ...

It sat there.

The animals glanced at each other blankly, and then started to realize how dumb they were. The pineapple did not have a trick up its sleeve. It wanted an honest race — but it knew it couldn’t walk (let alone run)!

About a few hours later, the hare came into sight again. It flew right across the finish line, still as fast as it was when it first took off. The hare had won, but the pineapple still sat at his starting point, and had not even budged.

The animals ate the pineapple.

Please answer the following questions based on what you read:


1. Why did the animals eat the pineapple?

a. they were annoyed
b. they were amused
c. they were hungry
d. they wanted to


2. Who was the wisest?

a. the hare
b. moose
c. crow
d. owl

[Crimson]

I believe that they ate the pineapple because they were annoyed.
"The animals glanced at each other blankly, and then started to realize how dumb they were."
They didn't want anyone else to know about their folly so they ate the pineapple and swore secrecy.

The Moose is the wisest because:
The Crow is insane and was throwing out random allegations that were proven false.
The Horse is pretty crazy because I mean, who races a pineapple?
The Owl joins the hype with the other animals in cheering for the pineapple.

The Moose is the obvious answer simply because he said the only intelligent thing in this entire story: Pineapples don't have sleeves. Which is true. And that's why he is the wisest.

[hwoodo94]

This is really odd. Huh. I did some snooping around, and I found this version from the New York Department of Education, which seems to be the full version that appears on the test. It makes slightly more sense, but it's still super ambiguous. The person who supplied the document also supplied the correct answers, but I'll let you guys work on that one.

State Department Pages

[Crazy50128]

1. Why did the animals eat the pineapple?

a. they were annoyed
b. they were amused
c. they were hungry
d. they wanted to

I narrowed it down to A and D. B and C seemed false to me because no where in the story did it say they or imply that they were hungry or amused, yet earlier on there are clues as to why the animals could be annoyed with the pineapple or want to eat it. I ended up going with A because D is a bit vague, and there just seems to be more evidence that they would have a stronger reason other than "wanting to" for eating the pineapple, such as being annoyed. I think that due to the fact that they feel stupid because of their own speculation, they end up using the pineapple as a scapegoat and blaming their false claims on him. As a result, they eat him out of malicious intent. I see it as mob mentality, they gang up and blame the pineapple. I'd compare the pineapple being eaten by everyone to a murder. If anyone has seen the Twilight Zone episode "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street", that's kind of what I'm thinking of.

2. Who was the wisest?

a. the hare
b. moose
c. crow
d. owl

This question actually doesn't seem too hard. It's not the hare because he agreed to a wager/bet without being 100% positive of the outcome, which isn't always entirely smart. It's not the crow obviously because he is making false allegations and is being paranoid. And it's not the Owl because he's a bystander who is simply giving into the mob mentality as to not be different from the others (also the Owl wasn't actually mentioned in the story, so I doubt it'd be the answer). It's the Moose because he does what the Owl didn't do. Similarly to what Crimson said, he stands up to the crowd using logical thinking, and says the only logical thing before he is quickly shot down by the kingpin of the "mob".

Can I get graded on this? I just did voluntary literary analysis on a weekend...


EDIT: In the story that HWood linked, the animals who say each thing are different than the story on here. My answers are in reference to the one on here. If I was answering the one that HWood linked, my reasoning would still be the same for the most part, but my answer would be the Owl-he's the one that said "Pineapples don't have sleeves..." in the original story.

[JjulianSr]

This is really odd. Huh. I did some snooping around, and I found this version from the New York Department of Education, which seems to be the full version that appears on the test. It makes slightly more sense, but it's still super ambiguous. The person who supplied the document also supplied the correct answers, but I'll let you guys work on that one.

State Department Pages

Interestingly enough, the article has changed since I originally took the copy of the question. It seems the reporter wasn't given the correct version. Yours is the correct version. Though it only makes slightly more sense.

This raises an even more disturbing question: Online reporting allows reporters to revise their content without any trace of the original quotes. I wonder how many reports get revised without us even knowing. Debaters should take note.