# Analogy Help
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analogy-help/372727
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 14, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analogy-help/372727 "2006-09-14T18:54:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analogy-help/372727/21 "2006-09-15T04:38:14Z")
> [@tomndebb](#):
>
> Remind me. Do fish have two legs or six legs?
Alright, shaddap you. đ
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### Author:  [@Terd\_Ferguson\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terd_Ferguson_1)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analogy-help/372727/22 "2006-09-15T12:27:53Z")
> [@constanze](#):
>
> What is this test suppose to measure, anyway? And who designed it?
Thanks for all the feedback so far. Supposedly these were on an online test for applicants of a Public Defender position.
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analogy-help/372727/23 "2006-09-15T15:35:30Z")
Maybe theyâre giving you the old âKobiyashi Maruâ treatment. A multiple choice test for which there are no right answers.
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### Author:  [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analogy-help/372727/24 "2006-09-15T16:32:45Z")
Or maybe the people really are too ignorant and lump frogs with dinosaurs as reptiles, and mouse and whales as mammals, so the real test is whether you want to work for /spend time with people who dream up such silly questions?
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### Author:  [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analogy-help/372727/25 "2006-09-15T17:13:01Z")
> [@lissener](#):
>
> ⌠and it has to do with letters or vowells or etymology or something?
Bingo.
1. passive:completion::active
a. inertia
b. energy
c. peanut butter
d. corvette
Passive=3 vowels, Completion=4 vowels
Active=3 vowels, inertia = only choice with 4 vowels.
Choices have 2,3,4 & 5 vowels. (unless you count the y as a vowel in energy, but it still doesnât give 4)
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analogy-help/372727/26 "2006-09-15T17:27:57Z")
> [@constanze](#):
>
> Or maybe the people really are too ignorant and lump frogs with dinosaurs as reptiles, and mouse and whales as mammals, so the real test is whether you want to work for /spend time with people who dream up such silly questions?
Thatâs where my money is. Even if we give them the benefit of the doubt, the frog/dinosaur question is exteremly poorly written, since we have several possible answers (none of them very satisfactory). Given this, itâs pretty certain that the passive/completion question is also merely stupid, instead of being hyper-clever.
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### Author:  [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analogy-help/372727/27 "2006-09-15T17:31:10Z")
Hereâs my take on it, which will just add to the confusion.
All the animals mentioned in question 1 are verterbrates.
Verterbrates have 5 classifications:
1. fish
2. amphibians
3. reptiles
4. birds
5. mammals
The rank is based on how highly developed each class is (fish being lowest and mammals being highest).
So, to me âfrog is to dinosaur as whale is toâ translates numerically as â2 is to 3 as 5 is toâ? (Okay, hereâs where Iâm really stretching this analogy.) The answer should then be bird (or 4). Frog and dinosaur are 2 adjacent verterbrate classifications as well as a whale and a bird. Only trouble is, the second half of that analogy works backwards as if you were saying 2 is to 3 as 5 is to 4.
So, it is tenuous at best but still, if you had an analogy that asked:
_2 is to 3 as 5 is to:?_ and 6 is _not_ one of your answers but 4 is, doesnât that seem as if it would be a correct answer? (Yeah I know, thatâs really pushing things isnât it?)
Oh and I think the answer to question 2 is inertia.
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