Your Mission, Whether You Choose to Accept It or Not: Get this girl a not-failing grade on her oral test without entirely flouting fairness and all the accompanying things that hold society together.
Your Method, Unfortunately: Ask the girl a question. Listen to her response. Her grammar will have improved dramatically but she won’t be able to think of what sort of object it is that Chuck wants, or that the handsome man and the pretty girl have, or that she likes. Thus she utters two words, an unfinished sentence, and shuts down, staring across the table at you expressionless. Stare back at her. Cross your legs, sending the message that you’re willing to wait. After minutes—minutes—of complete silence, burst into an explanation that she can say the same object, apple, for every answer, if she likes. You’ll be met with the same unmoved, expressionless eyes. She’ll keep looking at you. She could sit there forever, a machine on off. Try to be unperturbed, leaning back in your chair. She’ll be driving you nuts. In the end, concede her mind-numbing stare and look for correct execution of the grammar points, regardless of the gaping hole at the end of each sentence. Hold your head in your hand as you scribble a twenty-seven out of thirty.
The Inevitable Result: Another nascent realist patted on the back, and another chunk out of your dwindling personal integrity.
I’m interested in what would have happened to her if she had flunked? Or to you?