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A near impossible literacy test Louisiana used to suppress the black vote

(www.openculture.com)
243 points rcarmo | 1 comments | 21 Oct 24 21:29 UTC | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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saagarjha ◴[21 Oct 24 23:07 UTC] No.41909496[source]▶
I’m curious if anyone has the solutions to these.
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jakelazaroff ◴[21 Oct 24 23:12 UTC] No.41909525[source]▶
The point is that the questions are phrased ambiguously such that a reviewer can credibly claim that a "correct" solution is wrong.

Take question 20:

> Spell backwards, forwards

Is "backwards" the object, with "forwards" describing how to spell it — as in, "Spell the word 'backwards', forwards"?

Or is it being used as an adverb, telling you how to spell the word "forwards" — as in, "Spell backwards the word 'forwards'"?

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1. Cthulhu_ ◴[22 Oct 24 14:48 UTC] No.41914860[source]▶
And by "spell", do they mean just rewrite the word(s), write the word(s) with a s p a c e between each letter, or go to the examiner and spell it verbally?