The following is posted for your enjoyment and course planning for the new semester. I have added my own final since my discipline was not represented. -------------------------- Cut Here ------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 16:38:01 -0500 (EST) From: "John A. Sorrentino" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 16:35:02 -0500 (EST) From: John A. Sorrentino <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: The mother of all final exams (humor) (fwd) FYI. :) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 09:29:33 EDT From: Fredric Menz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: The mother of all final exams (humor) Instructions: Read each question carefully. Answer all questions. Time limit: 2 hours. Begin immediately. History: Describe the history of the Papacy from its origins to the present day, concentrating especially, but not exclusively, on its social, political, economic, religious and philosophical impact on Europe, Asia, America and Africa. Be brief, concise and specific. Medicine: You have been provided with a razor blade, a piece of gauze, and a bottle of scotch. Remove your appendix. Do not suture until you work has been inspected. You have fifteen minutes. Public Speaking: 2500 riot-crazed aborigines are storming the classroom. Calm them. You may use any ancient language except Latin or Greek. Biology: Create life. Estimate the differences in subsequent human culture if this form of life had developed 500 million years earlier, with special attention to its probable effect on the English Parliamentary System. Prove your thesis. Music: Write a piano concerto. Orchestrate and perform it with flute and drum. You will find a piano under your seat. Psychology: Based on your knowledge of their works, evaluate the emotional stability, degree of adjustment, and repressed frustrations of each of the following: Alexander of Aphrodisis, Rameses II, Hammuarabi. Support your evaluation with quotations from each man's work, making appropriate references. It is not necessary to translate. Sociology: Estimate the sociological problems which might accompany the end of the world. Construct an experiment to test your theory. Engineering: The disassembled parts of a high-powered rifle have been placed on your desk. You will also find an instruction manual, printed in Swahili. In 10 minutes, a hungry bengal tiger will be admitted to the room. Take whatever action you feel necessary. Be prepared to justify your decision. Economics: Develop a realistic plan for refinancing the national debt without increasing the rate of inflation, taxes, interest rates, the exchange rate, or the money supply. Trace the possible effects of your plan in the following areas: Cubism, the Donatist Controversy, and the Wave Theory of Light. Outline a method for preventing these and other important spillover effects. Criticize this method from the Chicago, Keynesian, post-Keynesian, Austrian, liberal, conservative, institutionalist, Virginia, and Marxian points of view. Point out any deficiencies in your analysis. Political Science: There is a red telephone on the desk beside you. Start World War III. Report at length on its socio-political effects if any. Epistemology: Take a position for or against truth. Prove the validity of your stand. Physics: Explain the nature of matter. Include in your answer an evaluation of the impact of the development of mathematics on science. Philosophy: Sketch the development of human thought. Estimate its significance. Compare with the development of any other kind of thought. General Knowledge: Describe in detail. Be objective and specific. --------------------------------- Addition ------------------------------ Urban Planning: Summarize the patterns of spatial organization of Greater New York (between 1400 and 2000 AD0, Alexandria (during the Second Kingdom), Moscow (during the Czarist period), and one city of your choice represented in fiction. Describe the social systems present in each urban mileau and their relation to urban form. Critique each social system and form, being sure to take account of all Western and non-Western views of the good society since Plato, and paying special attention to Habermas in light of Althusser's critique of humanism and the former's critique of structuralism. Construct a mathematical model of each urban region, identify the necessary changes in the social system to generate a city immune from your criticism, and use the model to prove that these changes would indeed generate such a city. Build full-scale replicas of all four cities both with and without the changes in social organization. In a concluding paragraph, summarize how the contemporary world system would be different had your proposed changes been implemented. (Note: in developing your critique you must take account of citizen's viewpoints, either through a public hearing or the hermeneutic reading of texts). Marsh Feldman Community Planning Phone: 401/792-2248 204 Rodman Hall FAX: 401/792-4395 University of Rhode Island Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kingston, RI 02881-0815 "Marginality confers legitimacy on one's contrariness."
