This Word in an English Exam Has Outraged French Students
Thousands of French teenagers were stumped by a question in their English exam paper using the word coping.' The question, based on Ian McEwan's novel Atonement, asks how the character Robbie Turner  falsely accused of rape  is "coping with the situation.", A disgruntled 17-year-old, known only as Arthur, launched a petition describing the question as "incomprehensible" and "impossible" and called for the notorious Question M' either to be annulled when grading the exam, known in France as the baccalaureate or for bonus points to be awarded to those who managed to answer it. More than 12,000 pupils had signed it by Tuesday morning. Arthur told a local TV station that coping' is not a word in common usage and would only be familiar to someone with "excellent" English. Others defended the question. Fellow student Hugo Travers, 18, tweeted "In 2015, you find a question hard and you write a petition full of errors. No, just no.", , , Download TIME's mobile app for iOS to have your world explained wherever you go,