The Answers, Revealed!

Not the answers to everything, mind you, but all the answers to the quiz we posted earlier this week.

If you haven’t taken the quiz yet, click here to do that before reading any further.

We’ll be away next week (as you may have gathered), but will return with a new installment in the first week of December. In the meantime, we wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving with good food, close friends and family, and only the most enjoyable communication patterns.

1. We have exciting news!
Opinion — You may agree that it’s exciting, or you may disagree.
(Challenge: how would you rephrase this to make it a data statement?)

2. We (Ben & Amy) are traveling to Sweden for a week, starting this Friday.
Data

3. During that period, we do not expect to post any new blog entries.
Data — a fact about what we’re thinking

4. The weather where we’re staying will be worse than in Cambridge, but not terribly cold.
Opinion — We think most of our readers would agree that more cold and rain qualifies as “worse,” but that’s still a judgment call. And there are plenty of people who see 30-degree weather as “terribly cold.” (Challenge: how would you rephrase this to make it a data statement?)

5. At this time of year, Stockholm receives a little less than nine hours of daylight, and the average temperature is in the high 30s.
Data

6. Learning this came as a relief to Amy, who was not certain that there would be any daylight at all.
Data — These are facts about Amy’s thoughts and experiences.

7. Amy has a very low tolerance for cold, dark weather.
Opinion — It’s a fact that Amy doesn’t like cold, dark weather, but whether her tolerance is low or high is a matter of opinion.

8. Ben is thinking less about the weather than about the social interactions they’ll have.
Data — a fact about Ben’s thinking

9. He is proud to have taught himself the Swedish language over the summer, and looks forward to trying it out.
Data — It happens (unfortunately) not to be true, but it is stated in such a way that its accuracy could be checked.

10. He has learned a lot of the common phrases that tourists need to know.
Opinion — What does “a lot” mean? Five phrases? Ten? One hundred? (Challenge: how would you rephrase this to make it a data statement?)

11. The two of us will be teaching for three days — Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Data

12. We’re going to enjoy working with our first all-Swedish group.
Opinion — This is a bit of a trick question. It’s an opinion about what is going to happen in the future (which we can’t possibly know), so in SAVI terms, it is technically a Positive prediction. We expect to enjoy the experience, but that's not a guarantee. (Did any of you pick up on this?)

13. And they should all love SAVI, because it’s a wonderfully useful communication system.
Data. (Just kidding. It’s just an opinion we both happen to share.)

So, how did you do? Which of these did you find to be easiest, and which were the most challenging? Let us know!