Before Google

This week in Arizona is AIMS week... standardized testing week... not my favorite week of the year, but we get to start school late and the students and I have breakfast together in the morning... very civilized.

Today is the fourth and final day of the testing and as we went over the sample question prior to starting the actual test, one of the multiple choice options was 'encyclopedia'.  A student raised her hand and said, "What's an encyclopedia again?".  Without missing a beat, I said that it is what we used to look things up before google.  She nodded knowingly and went on with her sample bubbling. 

What I really wanted to say, is that if I need to know the population of a country the options should not have read a.table of contents  b.index  c.encyclopedia and d.dictionary. 

The options should have read a. Google  b. Wikipedia   c. ask.com  d. cell phone  e. all of the above.