BIZARRE MATH EXAM QUESTION LEAVES STUDENTS SCRATCHING THEIR HEADS IN CHINA
船上有26只绵羊10只山羊,问船长几岁?
An unsolvable exam question on a mathematics paper left young children in China stumped—before going viral on social media and sparking a nationwide debate on critical thinking.
据美国《新闻周刊》网站的消息：一道无法解答的数学试题难住了中国的孩子们。随后，这道题在社交媒体上疯传，并引发一场全国范围的关于批判性思维的争论。
Fifth-grade students in China’s Shunqing District in the city of Nanchong, in Sichuan province, were faced with this apparently unsolvable exam question: “If a ship had 26 sheep and 10 goats onboard, how old is the ship’s captain?”
在四川省南充市顺庆区，五年级学生面临着这个显然无法解答的考试题目：“一艘船上有26只绵羊和10只山羊，船上船长几岁?”
“The captain should be at least 18 years old because a minor is not allowed by law to operate a vessel,” one student answered.
一个学生答道：“船上船长大于18岁，因为未成年人无法开货船。”
“The captain is 36 years old. He is quite narcissistic, so the number of animals corresponds to his age,” another wrote.
另一个学生写道：“船上船长36岁，因为船长很自恋，所以便把船上的羊的数量变为自己的年龄”。
After surfacing on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform, earlier this week, the question sparked widespread discussions among both adults and children. Some users criticized the school for putting the bizarre question with no logical answer in a mathematics paper.
本周早些时候，这道题被晒到中国流行的社交媒体平台微博上后，便激起了成人和儿童的广泛讨论。一些微博网友批评学校在数学试卷里出这种没有合理答案的奇葩试题。
“This question makes no logical sense at all. Does the teacher even know the answer?” one user wrote.
一名网友在微博上写道:“这道题根本不合逻辑，老师知道答案吗?”
“If a school had 26 teachers, 10 of which weren’t thinking, how old is the principal?” another said.
另一名网友吐槽道:“如果一所学校有26位老师，其中10位没有思考，校长多少岁？”
Some commenters praised the school for testing the students’ critical awareness and independent thinking.
有些评论者称赞该校测试了学生的批判性意识和独立思考能力。
“The whole point of it is to make the students think. It’s done that,” one user wrote. “This question forces children to explain their thinking and gives them space to be creative. We should have more questions like this,” another added.
一个网友写到"这个问题的主要目的在于让学生去思考，它也确实做到了。另一名网友说“这个问题迫使儿童解释他们的想法，给他们创造空间，我们应该有更多这样的问题”。
Others attempted to answer the unsolvable question by applying common sense principles.
其他人试图运用常识来回答这个无法解决的问题。
“The captain must have a wealth of sailing experience and abundant energy, therefore, the captain’s age should be between 30 to 60 years,” one user guessed.
一名网友猜测"船长必须具备丰富的航海经验以及充沛的精力,因此,船长的年龄应该在30岁到60岁之间。
"In a statement posted on January 26, Shunqing Education Department admitted that there was no right answer and explained that the intent of the question was to test student’s abilities to think outside the box. “The role of education is not to produce standardized spare parts.... Each answer can reflect a different personality. A question that can have different answers is a good question,” it said.
1月26日，南充市顺庆区教育局在一份声明中承认，这个问题没有正确答案，并解释说题目意在考察学生的创造性思维能力。声明指出"教育不是生产标准化零件......每一个不一样的答案体现出的可能是一个个不一样的人格，可以有不一样答案的题目才是好题目。"（译：筠竹/辛丽茹）
http://www.newsweek.com/can-you-solve-it-bizarre-math-exam-question-leaves-students-scratching-their-796005
