A petition has been started on Change.org by a French student asking for a question on the English exam of the baccalaureate to be annulled or for extra marks to be awarded to those who did answer it. Why? Apparently the question has been deemed "impossible to answer" because they did not know one word in the question, the word "coping". Seriously? They want a question annulled for that? That makes it impossible to answer? According to the petition starter, it could only be understood by someone bilingual. These are French students doing an English exam. Am I missing something here?
The exact context of the word "coping" was asking how a character from Ian McEwan's novel Atonement who was falsely accused of rape was "coping with the situation". This apparently was a source of great confusion to the beleaguered French students. What I find odd is the claim that "coping" is "not a very common word" and requires "excellent" English. Hardly. It is a common English verb that does not require excellent English at all. Floccinaucinihilipilification, on the other hand, is a perfect example of "not a very common word". When was the last time you heard that in ordinary conversation. I'm betting never. And you might never come across it again. It's just one of those words that exists but never gets an outing. But I digress.
It is just possible, though, that "coping" was confused with another word and not recognised as the progressive form of the verb "to cope". There is a noun "coping" which means "the top, typically curved or sloping, course of a brick or stone wall". That could conceivably be considered "not a very common word" (but more common than floccinaucinihilipilification). But that is not what "coping" means in this context. It is definitely the progressive form of the verb "to cope".
So what do we learn from this? Not all Europeans are as good at English as we think they are and not all petitions on Change.org should be taken seriously.
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