2017考研趣味閱讀：一道看似無解的考題

考研吧來源：中國日報 2015-12-10　

Imagine your frustration, you spend weeks, months even, revising for an exam paper and then one of the questions that comes your way appears to be utterly unfathomable.

想象一下，你花了數周，甚至數月復習考試內容，然后考試時一個問題半路殺出，讓你完全摸不著頭腦。

One perplexed student, known on social media site Imgur as 'Esperagon' and thought to be a student at Sheridan College in Toronto, found himself in exactly that situation after reading a question on his film degree paper and finding that no amount of preparation would ever see him get the right answer.

社交網站Imgur上一個叫“Esperagon”的學生，正處于這種迷茫的情形下：他是多倫多謝爾丹學院的學生，正在攻讀電影學位，他在自己的試卷上遇到了一個考題。他發現，就算再怎么復習，他也答不出這道題。

題目截圖

So what was the blundering brainteaser? 'What is a microphone?'

這道題究竟是個什么鬼?——問：“麥克風是什么?”

A simple enough question you might think? However, no explanation of the audio equipment would lead to marks because listed below it were only two answers: true or false.

你會想這問題也太簡單了吧?然而，對這個音頻設備進行的任何解釋都不得分。因為下面只有兩個答案：“正確”或“錯誤”。

Esperagon wrote on the caption accompanying a photo of question: 'I am a film student. This was a question on my sound recording test.'

Esperagon上傳了這道題的截圖，圖片上配文：“我是一名電影專業的學生，這是我錄音考試上的一道題。”

The upside to the situation? The student has seen his post about the question on his sound recording test, which started life on Imgur and ended up on Reddit, seen by around 1.5million people.

好的一面是?這個學生把題目發到了網上——最初是Imgur，后來是Reddit——已有150萬人瀏覽了這道題。

It seems plenty of people have been tickled by the question, supposedly set by an expert on the subject. One wrote: 'Everyone else can give up on the internet today, nothing will beat this.' whil another added: 'There is a small chance you are actually the host of Jeopardy and no one told you.'

這可能是個業內專家出的題，似乎很多網友被這個問題逗樂了。一人寫道：“都別忙活了，無解。”還有網友稱：“你其實有可能是《危險邊緣》(美國一檔益智問答節目)的主持人，沒人告訴你而已。”

The comments on the post have taken on a life of their own, with people joining 'true' and 'false' camps. 'False, ‘what’ is not a microphone' wrote one, while another simply quipped: 'The answer is yes'.

網友們在評論里自得其樂，自動分成了“正確”派和“錯誤”派。“我認為應該選‘錯誤’，因為‘什么’不是麥克風，”一網友評論。另一位網友則直截了當：“答案選‘正確’”。

Another joker wrote: 'If this were a written test, I'd have written: 'Testing, testing, one, two...' next to the answers provided.

還有人調侃道：“如果這是個筆試，我就在答案旁寫‘喂，喂，能聽到嗎?’。”

Vocabulary

unfathomable：莫測高深的，難解的

brainteaser：謎語;難題