Last week we sat an important exam. In my test room there was a girl called Windy, who seemed to be always ‘on stage’. Windy was more than windy; she was tempestuous.

Windy was late for every exam. She never failed to be the last one to enter the test room, which pissed off the student sitting immediately before her. Without Windy in place, a gap broke the chain of test takers. Therefore, the candidate seated in front of Windy had trouble passing the papers down the column before the exam started. That was just a small slice of Windy’s showy character, though.

When the listening test was going on, we perceived that the sound quality on the BS loudspeaker was inferior to what we are used to back in the classroom. There must have been a malfunction in the facility. No one complained, however, except Windy. First, she asked the invigilator to give the loudspeaker a pat. When the teacher could not get her point, Windy then went up and stood herself on a stool. From there, she reached her hand up for the loudspeaker and gave the poor thing a couple of slaps, ‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’

Unfortunately, Windy’s act did not cure the sick loudspeaker. Instead, the hopeless thing simply fell off the wall before Windy was finished with her remedy. The loudspeaker gave up the ghost and went mute. Windy froze then and there.

All other examinees by now had their eyes riveted on Windy. The loudspeaker’s abrupt death brought out our mirth. Our laughter rendered Windy as red as a beet and the teacher as nervous as a cat.

The invigilator sent Windy back to her seat and commanded us to resume our exam.

In a moment, Teacher Shengliver, you came upon the scene, lugging along a portable audio player. Your audio device played back crystal-clear English conversations.

Thanks to Windy’s futile efforts, we got our listening test well done. It is amazing that the girl should have gone to such great lengths to achieve it.