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Lesson #15 Ethics and Science in "Barney"

The document describes a lesson the narrator learned as an 8-year-old in China about overconfidence, when despite usually being one of the top math students, the narrator joined a provincial math contest without preparing properly and assumed success would come easily, only to be shocked by achieving a below average score, an experience that taught the narrator to avoid overconfidence going forward.

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64 views

Lesson #15 Ethics and Science in "Barney"

The document describes a lesson the narrator learned as an 8-year-old in China about overconfidence, when despite usually being one of the top math students, the narrator joined a provincial math contest without preparing properly and assumed success would come easily, only to be shocked by achieving a below average score, an experience that taught the narrator to avoid overconfidence going forward.

Uploaded by

JZC
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lesson #15 Ethics and Science in “Barney”

1. Where is the story set? Consider time and place

The isolated island during August and September. There is also a lab and a
well on the island.

2. Referring to the Sept 11 entry, explain what has happened since the previous
entry?

Between the journal entries from September 10th and 11th, the rat has
trapped the scientist by biting the rope while he was in the well, so he is either
dead or alive at the bottom of the well.

3. On what grounds has Tayloe been fired? How does the narrator justify the
firing?

Tayloe was fired because of poison trails leading up to Barney’s dish, and in
the scientist’s point of view, Tayloe tried to kill the rat because he thought he
was getting too smart. The scientist rationalized on this thinking that this was
under the influence of alcohol, that the life on the island was too much for him,
and that he lost his guinea pigs.

4. What is the real cause for the firing? What other foreshadowing is there of the
surprise ending?

The real cause for the dismissal was because the rat tricked the scientist into
firing him, by placing poison trails leading up to his dish. Barney needed to get
rid of Tayloe for two reasons. The first is Tayloe said Barney was getting too
smart, so he was worried he would try and kill him. The second is that Barney
was already plotting to kill the scientist, and it would be much easier to do so
with Tayloe gone. One of the foreshadowings of the surprising ending is: “He
denied it. Who else then?”

5. Find and explain 3 examples of irony in the last 2 paragraphs of the story.

One sample of irony in the second last paragraph is “I have now replaced that
section of rope and arranged some old sacking beneath it to prevent
recurrence of the accident.” This is ironic because the scientist believed the
rope was weathering because of the edge of the masonry, and in trying to fix
the problem, he arranged sacking underneath the rope. another sample of
irony is “Perhaps I should fix myself a sandwich as I may be down there
longer than seems likely at the moment. ” This is ironic because the scientist
thinks he will be in the well longer than he hopes. But little does he know, he
will be down there for the rest of his short life. In the final paragraph, the third
sample of irony is “I sprayned my wrist is why this is written so bad.” This is
very ironic because this is the rat pretending to be the scientist so that nothing
is fishy. But a sprained wrist doesn’t affect the spelling, may just slur a few
words.

6. Why is the story written in journal form? How is this form related to the ironic
(surprising conclusion)?

The story is written in journal form because it has to have time between each
paragraph. For example, there has to be a gap between the second last and
last journal entry, for the point of view to change (scientist to rat).
Option A

When I was eight years old, I was always one of the top students in our
grade for Math in China. Everytime, when there was a test, I usually get top
five for test marks. One day, I heard the news that our school and a few other
schools were hosting a provincial math contest. Since I was always one of the
top Math students in our grade, I decided to join without even thinking. The
day after joining, my teacher told me to study hard for the test, because the
opponents I will have are also top Math students, just like me. However, due
to the fact that I was always a top Math student, I was very confident of myself
that I can get a good result for the Math contest. When everyone else that
joined the contest were studying for it, I was playing games on my phone.
Finally, it was the day of doing the contest, I rushed through every question on
there without double checking the answers. Afterwards, I even laughed at my
friend who actually double checked the answers because it was too “easy” for
me. A few weeks after, the results came out. I opened the website and filled in
my personal informations with a feeling of extremely excited. Suddenly, I was
shocked when I saw my result… I thought i would at least get a 180+/200 for
the contest, and that score will make me at least a top 300 in the whole
provincial contest. However, what I saw was a 141/200. That was barely
above average… From that time on, I started to prevent myself from being
overconfident. Thanfully, it worked. I got 192/200, top 30 for next year’s
provincial Match contest.

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