Going to the Point?

West Point's entrance exams are still months away but many a would-be cadet is already worrying about how he should prepare. Last week the worriers could get some help from a book called How to Pass Annapolis and West Point Entrance Exams (Arco; $3.50). Judging by the book's sample questions, candidates would find that the Point expects from every man quite a lot.

The tests cover everything from trape-zoids to Tom Paine, from spelling (acqui-esence, acquiescence, aquiescence, acqui-esance) to literature ("What Joseph Lincoln did for Cape Cod, Sarah Orne Jewett did for 1) Florida, 2) Maine, 3) Oregon, 4) Michigan"). But just knowing the usual subjects is far from enough. To test their intelligence, the Point also presents candidates with a whole new bogus language that changes from year to year.

To start off, the candidates must master a mock set of rules. In Arco's example of an artificial-language, plurals end in s, numerals must follow nouns and kirn, kima, kime, kimi mean who, whose, to whom, and whom. Candidates must then use the rules to count (bal is one, bals is ten, balsebal is eleven, etc.) and to conjugate verbs (binob, I am; binol, you are; binom, he is; binof, she is; binos, it is; binobs, we are; binols you are; binoms, they are).

After that, there are a few instructions about gender (if jeval is horse, omjeval is stallion and jijeval is mare), ordinal numbers (balid is first, balsid is tenth), and adjectives (add ik to noun stems). Finally there are about a hundred words of vocabulary. Samples:

I live--lodob book--buk teacher--tidel one who--ut wine--vim l--ob

author--lautel I drink--dlinob I have--labob you--ol woman--vom I write--penob this--at two--tel house--dom four--fol man--man and--e scholar--julel

With all that in mind, says Arco, any future cadet should have no trouble at all translating the following:

Vom dlinoj vini. Buk at binom olik. Tidel obsik labom julelis telsefol. Man ut, kel lodom in dom, binom lautel, e penom bukis.*

*Translation: The woman drinks wine. This book is yours. Our teacher has 24 scholars. The man who lives in that house is an author and writes books.

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