26 Questions

According to statistics that everyone knows, Americans change their place of residence on average every six years. One day we moved from New York City to New Jersey. The U.S. states are small states with their own laws, parliament, budget, police and even traffic rules. For example, in New Jersey, right turn to the red light is allowed after a full stop, and in New York it is strictly prohibited. Therefore, the law requires every new resident of the state to pass a PDD theoretical exam, exchange driving licenses and finally get local car numbers. This event is held for one month. I remembered it when there were three working days left of the month.

During the break, I went to the internet and found the nearest office of the Department of Transportation. It was five minutes from my work and was open until eight in the evening that day. I think lucky! And as always almost smote: by the end of the day began another aural. The manager ordered pizza for everyone and announced that we would stand until we won. I managed to escape only on the promise of connecting out of the house tonight. I arrived at the office at 7:25 a.m., when the queues were no longer there and the visitors were still being accepted. He filled out the form, paid the money, found the desired stand. Clerk was smiling, kind and conversational, like most older African Americans.

“Oh,” he said, “I hear your Russian accent! I have a Russian accent. My friend had a Russian girlfriend. You probably would prefer to give in Russian, yet it is your native language, but now there is no such option. I had a paper exam before. In addition to English, we had questionnaires in Spanish, Russian and Chinese. This year I moved to computers. Spanish is already there, and Russian, I’m sorry, not yet. Ready for the exam? Can you use a computer mouse? It is great! Then follow me!

Not only did I not prepare for the exam, but I didn’t even plan to prepare for it. Moreover, I forgot how I rented it six years ago in New York, but it didn’t bother me at all. Driving a car for a long time, fines had only for excess speed, about the right turn knew, people with the exam cope. I think I will give up too.

Clark sat down at my computer and turned it on. I will answer 26 questions. There are four answers to each question. I have to choose the correct answer at least 20. He pressed “Start” and walked away, leaving me alone with the first question: “What is the maximum allowable alcohol concentration in the driver’s blood?” I did not know and stopped at the smallest number. I did not guess. No, I think I have five more in stock. The second question was, “What is the minimum depth of the tire protector?” Almost the same numbers in parts of an inch didn’t tell me anything. I did not guess again...

The following four questions were equally ugly. Why ugly? Because there are simple answers to these questions that everyone knows and everyone successfully uses in real life. For example, you can drink one bottle of beer or one glass of wine or one glass of vodka per hour. It is no longer worthwhile. The depth of the protector is checked with the one-cent coin as shown in the photo at http://abrp722.livejournal.com in my Live Journal. If Lincoln’s head is fully visible, you need to buy new tyres. In short, on the first six questions I gave six wrong answers. The computer showed the message "The exam is over." I stood up, opened my hands and expressed all my feelings with a short idiomatic expression, “Well, no <- -> to myself!” Of course not out loud.

I probably looked very funny, because the clerk just blossomed with a white tooth smile.
“I see you have very weak knowledge,” he said, “and I want to give you some advice. First, you will have to work hard and hard to learn all the necessary information. But that is little. It seems to me that you don’t have the experience of passing American exams: you don’t know how to analyze questions and catch the difference in the answers. When I got this job, I had a month of training and then the most difficult exam in my life. Before the exam, we were taught to understand questions and answers. I tried hard, I learned and I gave up. When do you want to appoint your exam?
Today is Thursday. Let’s for tomorrow. Are you not working tomorrow? Go to Monday.
Will you be able to prepare? I think you won’t have enough for two weeks!
I will succeed! I said, I will try very hard.
"Let's see," doubted the clerk and handed me a booklet with the cynical title "The Driver's Handbook."

Why cynical? Because a significant part of it was devoted to administrative and other matters that had nothing to do with the actual management of motor vehicles. And it was on this part that the emphasis was made in 166 so-called general questions, of which, as mentioned, 26 examinations were selected. In order not to be vague, I’ll give you a typical question: “Within how long do you have to report a name change?” These 26 questions need somewhere, blood from the nose, to get.

I was stressed and remembered that I had a familiar owner of the auto school. I immediately called him and described the situation. “Yes,” Borja reassured me, “the questions are always the same. I will give you the correct answers in Russian. Yes, the same in all languages, so that no one is offended. Sorry I am running. He put the phone and immediately dropped the file. I also opened it immediately. The first was about alcohol, the second about the protector. Pu Sunlin described the state of the hero of one of the stories as follows: "The heart was so met with joy... as if he had received all nine distinctions from the emperor at once." Something similar happened to me at that moment.

You get used to good things quickly. I instantly forgot about 166 questions and concentrated on not teaching 26. After all, honestly, I didn’t have time for it: today and tomorrow you need to work, on Saturday to teach PD is not good, it’s not a Saturday thing, and on Sunday, if you don’t call from work, we wanted to go to the ocean. After considering several options, it was decided to learn only the answers, or rather their numbers. Without loading the case into a long box, I recorded 26 digits in a row and soon found that they were not accidental. The "1-2-4-3-1" segment was repeated five times, completing a series of three. I ate with the consciousness of a well-performed duty, then turned on the laptop and worked until late without the habitual in such cases disgust.

On Monday I went into the office first to get to work at nine. My friend saw me, welcomed me with his hand and called to his stand.
“I understand that you killed in preparation for the weekend, but I have to upset you. Our computer, which takes the English language exam, broke. So all I can offer you now is to deliver in Spanish.
Well, I think things... But I quickly remembered that my tongue was up to the light bulb, and immediately agreed:
In Spanish as in Spanish.
Do you know Spanish? He was surprised.
I knew only two words in Spanish: "s