Right, it claimed you didn’t need background knowledge, but then on that problem you’d need to know the South American countries. They probably should have given you a list of them as an aid there.
(I think the answers were Argentina and Paraguay but didn’t see where to check.)
Edit: also, maybe this thing is my true calling? I solved a problem like this on my first day of Kindergarten. The teacher wrote something on the board in cursive, in the expectation that the kids would be able to read it. (Parents were polled beforehand to verify none of the kids “knew cursive”.) But since I recognized enough of the letters, and had a “side channel” in terms of what things make sense to say, I could translate it, frustrating the lesson.
Based on the letters I knew, the message looked like this (dashes indicate unknown, pipes are spaces):
W - - c o m - | t o | K - - - - - (lots more)
I first figured that the first word must be “welcome”, and then, given a) the “welcome to” plus giant K word, and given b) that the word “kindergarten” was on my mind so strongly that day, and c) it made sense as the next word, I correctly guessed the solution.
I assumed this skill only had application in crypto and maybe reverse engineering, but hey, I’d it’s what linguists do too, maybe I should consider that!
Also useful in understanding ancient manuscripts that have been partly eaten by termites, or where part of the rock has deteriorated; or palimpsests. In short, you should become a professor of medieval literature, like the good Dr. Henry Jones, Sr.
True, but perhaps high school students should know the nations of the world, at least enough to have memory jogged when given 70% of the letters and some misdirection in word endings.
> (I think the answers were Argentina and Paraguay)
(I think the answers were Argentina and Paraguay but didn’t see where to check.)
Edit: also, maybe this thing is my true calling? I solved a problem like this on my first day of Kindergarten. The teacher wrote something on the board in cursive, in the expectation that the kids would be able to read it. (Parents were polled beforehand to verify none of the kids “knew cursive”.) But since I recognized enough of the letters, and had a “side channel” in terms of what things make sense to say, I could translate it, frustrating the lesson.
Based on the letters I knew, the message looked like this (dashes indicate unknown, pipes are spaces):
W - - c o m - | t o | K - - - - - (lots more)
I first figured that the first word must be “welcome”, and then, given a) the “welcome to” plus giant K word, and given b) that the word “kindergarten” was on my mind so strongly that day, and c) it made sense as the next word, I correctly guessed the solution.
I assumed this skill only had application in crypto and maybe reverse engineering, but hey, I’d it’s what linguists do too, maybe I should consider that!