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]