# Lateral Thinking Puzzles. Let's do it again! **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [October 23, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193 "2019-10-23T21:32:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 226
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4503 "2020-12-03T04:59:42Z")
Were copy and paste computer functions used? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4504 "2020-12-03T06:09:00Z")
Was the paper based on a translation? Like Google Translate? And “Penny” and “Bounce” were mistranslations into English? ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4505 "2020-12-03T14:43:26Z")
Student copies word for word something in a SparkNotes or other website, and posts it WITHOUT PROOFREADING. **Close! The “without proofreading” part is correct, but there’s a step missing…** Which means that she doesn’t catch something such as a comment in one of the websites that says “As a male from an African-South Asian background, I respond to the characters like this…” when she is not in fact a male from that background. **No.** Or the assignment was to read Book 1 in a series and she found info about Book 2, which is about some of the same characters but not all. **No.** Or she copied something with British spellings, including perhaps something to do with a slang meaning of Penny. or Bounce. **No. (There is a work of British literature involved, but slang / spelling differences are not relevant.)** Were copy and paste computer functions used? **Yes.** Was the paper based on a translation? **No, all of the texts involved were originally written in English.** Like Google Translate? **No.** And “Penny” and “Bounce” were mistranslations into English? **No, not exactly, but this scenario is very very close.** ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4506 "2020-12-03T14:50:07Z")
Going for something very specific to try to unlock this: Was “Bounce” a name used for Tigger in the paper? ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4507 "2020-12-03T14:58:09Z")
Okay, how about “translations” from English into English? You’ve assigned something from an earlier era, say Elizabethan, and the words penny and/or bounce were used in ways that would now seem archaic, and she misunderstood that? More later if we haven’t solved it by then but I’ve got a meeting now ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4508 "2020-12-03T15:04:00Z")
Okay, how about “translations” from English into English? **Kind of…** You’ve assigned something from an earlier era, say Elizabethan, and the words penny and/or bounce were used in ways that would now seem archaic, and she misunderstood that? **… but not like that. (It may help to know that the word “bounce” does not appear anywhere in the original text. The word “penny” does, but it’s used in a way that is not significantly different from how a modern-day American might use it.)** ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4509 "2020-12-03T15:20:55Z")
So Penny is human but the word “Penny” used in a way that we would use it in the US (and UK?)? Like a character in a story named One-Cent that was rewritten as Penny? Or Queen Victoria on the “Penny Black”? ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4510 "2020-12-03T15:32:09Z")
So Penny is human, but the word “Penny” used in a way that we would use it in the US (and UK?)? **In the original text, “penny” is used only as a generic noun describing a coin of little value. In the student’s post _about_ this text, “Penny” was used as if it were the personal name of a human.** Like a character in a story named One-Cent that was rewritten as Penny? **Something like that…** Or Queen Victoria on the “Penny Black”? **No.** ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4511 "2020-12-03T15:41:40Z")
**Bonus hint:** It may help to know that “Penny” is an EXTREMELY famous and iconic character. You know this character. Had he been less famous, the student would have been less likely to get in trouble in this specific way, although I would still have had some questions about “Bounce.” ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4512 "2020-12-03T15:45:37Z")
So like a line in a story is, “Frank said, ‘Oy, I got to meet a penny or tuppence I do Gov’ner.’” to which the paper said, “Frank had to go meet Penny.” ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4513 "2020-12-03T15:56:56Z")
So like a line in a story is, “Frank said, ‘Oy, I got to meet a penny or tuppence I do Gov’ner.’” to which the paper said, “Frank had to go meet Penny.” **No – that would be an innocent misunderstanding of the text, rather than plagiarism.** ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4514 "2020-12-03T20:35:41Z")
David Copperfield? ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4515 "2020-12-03T21:05:55Z")
David Copperfield? **Right track, wrong text.** ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4516 "2020-12-04T16:11:26Z")
Saint Nicholas? ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4517 "2020-12-04T16:13:21Z")
Saint Nicholas? **No.** ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4518 "2020-12-04T16:17:21Z")
Oops, missed this question from a while back: Was “Bounce” a name used for Tigger in the paper? **No.** ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4519 "2020-12-04T16:42:51Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > David Copperfield? **Right track, wrong text.** In keeping with the spirit of the season: A Christmas Carol? ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4520 "2020-12-04T17:49:28Z")
A Christmas Carol? **Yes!** So, now that you know the text: how, exactly, _did_ the student’s attempt to plagiarize her discussion-board posts from various online sources result in the addition of Penny and Bounce to Dickens’s classic Christmas tale? Prior lines of questioning have established that copy-paste is involved; that translations from languages other than English are _not_ involved; and that the student failed to adequately proofread her work; but there’s still a missing step here… ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4521 "2020-12-04T17:56:12Z")
Were Penny and Bounce from an adaptation? ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/4522 "2020-12-04T17:56:45Z")
Were Penny and Bounce from an adaptation? **No.** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193.md?page=225) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193.md?page=227)