The price of a telephone was first increased by 10% and then the new price was decreased by 25%.\u00a0 The final price was what percent of the initial price?<\/p>\n
New exciting and relevant revision in the bestselling SexAT:<\/em><\/p>\n Your fraternity house is hosting a party and wants to make a mixed drink out of vodka and juice.\u00a0 Paul, the first taste tester, says the mixture was too weak, and he added 10% more vodka.\u00a0 Sam the second taste tester, said the mixture was too strong so he added 25% water.\u00a0 The final mixture was what percent of the initial?\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n The section on grammar features poorly written sentences, with suggestions on how to rewrite them.\u00a0 The content of the sentences themselves are basically irrelevant, so they can be easily revised as follows:<\/p>\n Existing boring example that everyone hates:<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cConfident that she was fully prepared, Ellen decided to spend the night before the recital reading and relaxing but not to be practicing.\u201d<\/p>\n New exciting and relevant revision in the bestselling SexAT:<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cConfident that he was fully prepared, Tom decided to spend the night before the prom updating his Facebook page, but not to be making sure that he had checked his supply of condoms.\u201d<\/p>\n My enthusiasm for this project is largely based on the catchy title, which I think is half the battle in a book sale.\u00a0 When my son was a high school senior, I remember buying a book called, \u201cHarvard Schmarvard,\u201d which had something to do with the college admissions process, and when he was renting an apartment at college, I bought him a cookbook called \u201cEveryone Loves Ramen.\u201d\u00a0 Both books were purchased based on the title alone and saw little action.\u00a0 I have even gone so far as to trademark the term SexAT\u2122 so that nobody can rip me off.<\/p>\n At the same time that I was mulling this project over, I renewed my interest in Math, and specifically in the history of math, as I wanted to find the answer to a question that had troubled me since high school. How do you multiply and divide Roman numerals?\u00a0 The answer was, as I already suspected, you really can\u2019t.\u00a0 The introduction of our current Hindu-Arabic system of numbers solved these problems, except that the concept of an equation, with an equal sign, and symbols for multiplying and dividing wasn\u2019t accepted until sometime later.\u00a0 This meant that all math consisted of word problems.\u00a0 One of my reference books described the first known collection of word problems, published in the eight century.\u00a0 This was my first eureka moment.\u00a0 Students have been struggling with the same basic word problems for over a thousand years.<\/p>\n Alcuin of York was a notable scholar during the reign of Charlemagne and in 781 the king <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “A man saw some horses at pasture, and wished they were his, and that there were others with them that were his, the same number again, plus a quarter of the sum that would result, for then he would glory in 100 horses.\u00a0 How many did the man see at pasture?”<\/p>\n You can count on at least one of these \u201cheap\u201d problems in the SexAT, perhaps involving invitations to prom after parties instead of horses. \u00a0Another category is called the \u201chundred fowls,\u201d apparently since the first example of this type of question was actually found in 5th<\/sup> centuryChina.<\/p>\n A merchant wanted to buy a hundred pigs for one hundred pence.\u00a0 For a boar he would pay 10 pence; and for a sow 5 pence; while he would pay one penny for a couple of piglets.\u00a0 How many boars, sows and piglets must there have been for him to have paid exactly 100 pence for 100 animals?<\/p>\n Alcuin has substituted pigs for fowls, but in my SexAT I would substitute illicit substances for pigs. \u00a0\u201cStrange family\u201d problems are more like brain teasers, along the lines of:\u00a0 if two men each take the other\u2019s mother in marriage, what would be the relationship between their sons?\u00a0 In this strange family you could be your own grandfather.\u00a0 Then there are many geometry problems, such as how many swine can fit into a stall, or how many casks of wine can fit into a cellar.<\/p>\n My second eureka moment came as I read the first of many \u201criver crossing\u201d problems.\u00a0 This was the moment when Alcuin validated my concept of the SexAT, across a span of 1231 years.\u00a0 Here is the problem:<\/p>\n \u201cThree friends, each with a sister needed to cross a river.\u00a0 Each one of them coveted the sister of another.\u00a0 At the river they found only a small boat, in which only two of them could cross at a time.\u00a0 How did they cross the river without any of the women being defiled by the men?\u201d<\/p>\n The choice of the word defile is absolutely charming.\u00a0 You get this great visual image of rocking boats with water slopping over the sides and giddy maidens being pursued through swaying riverside grasses.\u00a0 Now clearly Alcuin could have chosen any combination of people for his problem, for example an obese family, where you would have to figure out how to get them all across without sinking the boat and without leaving a child alone.\u00a0 In fact throughout history, this same basic problem has been reformatted to reflect the issues of the time.\u00a0 For example, during the Reformation the Many of us have experienced the challenges of motivating our high school children, hoping that they will take the SAT or ACT test seriously. \u00a0Alcuin was probably no different.\u00a0 Here is the year 781 version of this timeless conversation, featuring the overweening mother Betrada and her sullen son Pepin.\u00a0 (Please note the use of pretentious words throughout as I would also like to imagine that in his river crossing problem, Alcuin\u2019s choice of the word \u201cdefile\u201d is a nod to multitasking with vocab practice.)<\/p>\n Betrada watches Pepin slouch in the corner, idly picking ticks off the household dog and throwing them into the blazing hearth.\u00a0 \u201cSon, I beseech thee, why would you not spend time with these reckoning problems that your kindly uncle Alcuin has left for you?\u201d<\/p>\n Without looking at his mother, Pepin says, \u201cI find these problems most noisome, such as reckoning the number of swine that will fit inside a stall, and I have heard such discussion at the ale house where wagering men find much amusement, but I think that \u2018twould be much simpler to ask neighbor Lombard, since he has such a stall filled with pigs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAle house, did you say ale house?\u00a0 I have told you that you are much too young to be visiting those houses of ill repute.\u00a0 I pray that you have not overimbibed and brought condemnation upon our household,\u201d sighs Betrada.\u00a0 Seeing no response from Pepin, she continues, \u201cYou know how important it is to get a position at the court of Charlemagne.\u00a0 He is a mighty king of great intellect, and you can continue your education there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy should I not go to the school just down the road?\u201d asks Pepin.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cBy my word, you know so little of the world.\u00a0 If you stay here, you can only become, at best, an apprentice cobbler. Your future will be secured if you get a position at court, and our future depends on it also.\u00a0 Your sister\u2019s prospects for marriage will improve if you are at court.\u00a0 We have a great legacy at the court, your father, God rest his soul, your father\u2019s father and his father before him all served our kings, but I am told that this record is no longer adequate and that Charlemagne is only seeking men with nimble and agile minds.\u00a0 You know your younger cousin Adalbert got a position at court last year, and you have so many more gifts.\u00a0 Your tutor will attest to your fine art and poetry, your words and penmanship.\u00a0 But he cannot be so fulsome about your reckoning skills.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDear mother, everyone knows why Adalbert got a position at court, though he is only of middling intellect.\u00a0 King Charlemagne has announced that he is seeking scholars from all quarters of his realm.\u00a0 Adalbert is fromWest Woppingshire, a town that has never sent a scholar to court.\u00a0 I am fromOxford, where there are many scholars, and Charlemagne does not seek any others from here.\u00a0 I fear that my geography is working against me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPepin you cannot give up.\u00a0 Alcuin has told me that the King has asked him to devise a great test to identify the most nimble minds, and these scholars will be appointed to the court, and given an apartment and they can feast at the King\u2019s great table.\u00a0 These problems that your uncle has so kindly given you are examples of the very problems that will be on the test. \u00a0He told me, \u2018Have Pepin study them well and surely he will find great success.\u2019\u00a0 \u201cHere take a look at this one,\u201d said Betrada, \u201cthis one is about men and women defiling each other in a boat.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cZounds,\u201d exclaims Pepin,\u201d as he grabs the sheaf from his mother, and rushes off to study.\u00a0 Two months later he learns that he is the first scholar to ever score an 800 on Alcuin\u2019s test.\u00a0 He is appointed to court as the assistant to the exchequer, his sister marries a wealthy landowner, his mother becomes a lady in waiting, and his uncle Alcuin publishes the first test prep book to great acclaim.<\/p>\n When the waters **** high and the river is wide,<\/p>\n The farmer works to get his flock to the other side<\/p>\n On the first trip he had to leave behind some of his ****<\/p>\n But from both sides of the river he heard a long hungry howl.<\/p>\n A **** and some chickens, it\u2019s a classic problem of the river crossing kind<\/p>\n That has been vexing students since Alcuin tried to sharpen the mind.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Answers: flow, fowl, wolf<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: Several years ago when I was preparing to take the SAT, I proposed the idea of the SexAT, a new test prep book specifically designed to appeal to high schoolers.\u00a0 I would take existing SAT questions and simply reformat them … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/SexAT-Alcuin.jpg\" "\\"SexAT")
<\/a>appointed him his education advisor.\u00a0 During this period, he created the first math \u201ctextbook\u201d titled \u201cProblems to Sharpen the Young.\u201d\u00a0 The book consists of 56 problems, illustrating 9 different types of problems, all of which can still be found on the SAT test.\u00a0 One category is called \u201cheap problems,\u201d illustrated by problem 2 in Alcuin\u2019s text:<\/p>\n<\/a>boat could be filled with Catholics and Protestants and during the colonization of Africa, the boat could be filled with trembling missionaries and eager cannibals.\u00a0 But Alcuin was brilliant.\u00a0 By choosing the eternal issue of sex, he avoided any specter of political correctness, treason or blasphemy.\u00a0 And by creating a sexual context, I\u2019d like to think that both Alcuin and I were addressing the same problem \u2013 we both needed to spice up the questions to motivate students.<\/p>\nThe missing words in the following poem are anagrams (i.e. share the same letters like spot, post, stop) and the number of asterisks indicates the number of letters.\u00a0 Your job is to solve the missing words based on the above rules and the context of the poem.\u00a0 Scroll down for answers.<\/em><\/h6>\n
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