Appendix 2 -- Publisher's Comments

Here are our thoughts:

#1
When designing TM, we had to weigh the pros and cons of various strategies
and then make trade-offs to provide what we thought was the best "total
package"__within the schedule and budgetary constrains.  Our goal was to
design an optimal test product, not a language study course.  In subsequent
versions, we will plan to incorporate some of your very practical
suggestions, as well as some of the suggestions in your wish list.  For
example, we considered a definition for vocabulary items before, but the
previously mentioned constraints__particularly ironing out as many
technical glitches as we could__dictated our direction.  We intend to keep
improving the product.


Regarding Presentation: "while the Hypercard menu bar has been hidden ... A
single card thus prints out wastefully on two sheets of paper."

Response: The command + P should've been disabled completely. The print
option for the current Hypercard was not intended; therefore, there's no
Page Setup menu.


#2
Unfortunately, not being able to see the whole comprehension/other passage
at once is true of most software, not just TM.  For clarity, one has to
make trade-offs when one has a certain size screen to work with.  We
designed the software to be optimized on a 13-inch monitor, because we
believed that about 90% of the users would have that equipment.


Regarding Content:

Is the information accurate?

"Some of the items are not well-constructed .... To give a clear example of
a poor item,

Prejudices,-------- , protests ....aspects of American life.

A. a collection of
B. it is a collection of
C. being a collection of
D. that is a collection of

Choice (A) triggers the 'Correct!' window which contains an explanation,
part of which explains that "An adjective clause (which/that is a
collection of essays) would be correct also.

Response: Obviously here "An adjective clause (which is a collection of
essays) would be correct also should have been used instead. The pronoun
"that" should be deleted. This looks like a copy/paste problem. The letter
"D" is a wrong answer because the pronoun "that" cannot be used in a
non-restrictive adjective clause. And you are absolutely right about the
typo: It's H.L.__not H.C.__Mencken.

----------------
Maryam Hallez

Encomium Publications

3639 Wilshire Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45208 USA

Tel:1-800-243-4831      513-871-4377
Fax: 513-871-4312
E-mail: encomium@iac.net
Net: www.iac.net/~encomium

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