Excerpts from student exams in the 19th century:

• “He enjoys riding on a philosopher.”
• “The leopard is watching his sheep.”
• “They had a strawberry vestibule.”
• “The men employed by the Gas Company go around and speculate the meter.”
• “Her hat is contiguous because she wears it on one side.”
• “He preached to an egregious congregation.”
• “The captain eliminated a bullet through the man’s heart.”
• “You should take caution and be precarious.”
• “We should endeavor to avoid extremes–like those of wasps and bees.”
• “There are a good many donkeys in theological gardens.”
• “A verb is something to eat.”
• “A circle is a round straight line with a hole in the middle.”
• “Things which are equal to each other are equal to anything else.”
• “North America is separated by Spain.”
• “The principal products of the U.S. is earthquakes and volcanoes.”
• “The Rocky Mountains are on the western side of Philadelphia.”
• “One of the leading industries of the United States is mollasses, book-covers, numbers, gas, teaching, lumber, manufacturers, paper-making, publishers, coal.”
• “Russia is very cold and tyrannical.”
• “Hindoostan flows through the Ganges and empties into the Mediterranean Sea.”
• “Ireland is called the Emigrant Isle because it is so beautiful and green.”

— From Mark Twain, “English as She Is Taught: Being Genuine Answers to Examination Questions in Our Public Schools,” 1887