Jeopardy

On Friday fellowship, the organisers decided to try a game they aptly called Bible Jeopardy. Each category corresponded to a book of the New Testament, and the values ranged from 100 to 1000. The questions, however, weren't exactly always worth the number of points they earned; a certain 200-point question was two-part, and seemed worth more like 1500 points.

Through the course of this game, however, it quickly became apparent why the nature of our gameplay was different from that observed on television. The questions themselves, while interesting, failed to conform to an unspoken Jeopardy standard, which would have allowed for the relatively simple formation of the corresponding question. Consider the following [real-life] jeopardy answer/question:

A: This gardening tool is also known as an immoral pleasure seeker.
Contestant X: What is a hoe?
A: ...
Contestant Y: What is a rake?
A: Correct!

Now, contrast that with:

A: Jesus created wine from something, in a certain place. (Identify both the something and the place.)
Most logically correct answer: What did Jesus do with water in Cana of Galilee?
Accepted answer: What is water, and Cana of Galilee?

---!?!??? One wonders how the organisers devised these questions. (Obviously though, none were grammatically knowledgable enough to have devised better questions.) A significantly better-phrased question would have been:

"Jesus turned this into wine at this place."
or
"Here was where Jesus turned this into wine."

Both would have elicited a much more natural "What did Jesus do with water in Cana of Galilee?"

Naturally, being a church-related activity, rigor for rules were not strictly observed (especially in the realm of grammar), although they were curiously adamant about source-citing (which verse did we specifically draw our answers?).

And to close off as I semi-normally do with a random fact or thought of the day: Never travel last-minute to university when you can do it the night before. It decreases sleep, and heightens anxiety.