Two Editions of the Rapid Reader and a Character Question
The Rapid Reader for Class X is a Hmar prose translation of a longer work, printed in an abridged school edition of 96 pages across 12 chapters. The supplementary section carries 15 marks. About a third of your 42 students have bought, from the Sunday bazaar, an older and fuller edition of the same translation - 140 pages, including a chapter the school edition omits entirely. You discover this only in the week before the half-yearly.
The 5-mark question you have set asks why the eldest brother refuses to leave the village in the final chapter. In the school edition his reason must be inferred from two short exchanges in Chapters 9 and 11; it is never stated outright. In the older edition, a full paragraph in the omitted chapter states the reason explicitly. Three students reproduce that paragraph almost word for word, including a place name that never appears in the school edition.
1. What marks do the three students get, and on what principle?
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Full marks, with the edition noted on the script. The question asks why the brother refuses to leave; the older book is the same translation, merely unabridged, so the paragraph is genuine evidence about the character rather than a fabricated answer. Penalising a student for having read more of the book cannot be defended in front of a class. What you must not do is announce that the older edition is 'also correct' as a general rule: the prescribed text is the school edition, and a later question on Chapter 10 could be answered wrongly by someone leaning on the omitted chapter. So mark, note the source, and then repair the paper.
2. Rewrite the question so that owning either edition makes no difference.
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Point the question at a passage both editions share: 'In Chapter 11 the brother says [short quotation]. Using that line and one earlier exchange, explain what he fears.' The older edition now gives no advantage, and the inference work - which is what the section actually tests - is unavoidable for everyone. Alternatives: set the question on a scene the omitted chapter does not touch; or print a note at the top of the section that every answer must be supported from the chapters in the school edition, which turns a hidden trap into a fair warning. The first option is best because it needs no announcement and no policing.
3. A fourth student, who has only the school edition, gives a plausible but different reason. How many marks, and what does it tell you?
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Give 4 out of 5 if the inference is defensible and anchored in the two exchanges in the school edition; 2 if he has invented a motive the text cannot carry. The test is not whether he agrees with the older edition but whether the line he quotes can bear the weight he puts on it - fear of the journey is weak if the chapter he cites is about the brother's land, strong if it is about the road. This is also your fairness check. If a careful reader of the prescribed text can only guess, the question was badly set, and the marks should show that to you as much as to him.