Caveat: The Professor Loved His Father

A "type 6" TOEFL speaking question requires the answerer to summerize some kind of classroom-style lecture on an academic topic. We listened to a fairly simplistic passage about global warming. There is a kind of shorthand in TOEFL answers where one refers to the lecturer as "the professor" – I don't really like this style but it is encouraged by the sample answers in our textbooks, so I go with the flow.

My student Tom had a kind of brain-freeze and was unable to answer very well. So he said something like this: 

The professor loved his father. His father died. Because of global warming. It was very sad. Something to do with hairspray. And carbon dioxide. Yeah. Carbon dioxide. So sad.

I had to laugh. That would get a very low score. But somehow I couldn't feel upset. It was funny.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

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