One day, I received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physical problem, while the student claimed a perfect score. I was elected as their arbiter¹. I read the examination problem:” Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer².” The student had answered:” Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to the street, and then bring it up, and then measure the length of the rope. The length of it is the height of the building.”

The student had really answered the question completely, but the answer didn't confirm his competence³ in physics. I suggested the student have another try. I gave him six minutes to answer the question, warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. Five minutes later, he said he had many answers and clashed off one, which read:” Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing⁴ its fall with a stopwatch. Then, use the physical formula to calculate the height of the building.”

At this point, my colleague had to accept it, and then the student made almost full marks. I couldn't help asking the student what the other answers were. He listed many others, and then added,” Probably the best is to take the barometer to the administrator⁵ and said to him, ’Sir, here is a fine barometer. If you tell me the height of the building, I will give it to you.'”

Then, I asked the student if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors⁶ trying to teach him how to think.

The name of the student was Bohr who later was famous all over the world. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922.

文章大意：一天，我接到一个同事的电话。他说他正打算给一个学生的物理成绩零分，因为这个学生给出的物理题答案很不合理，但是这个学生却声称自己应该得满分。而我有幸成为了他们的裁判。我仔细地阅读了这次物理考试的题目：“说明如何用一个气压计测量一幢建筑物的高度。”这个学生给出的答案是：“将气压计带到建筑物的顶部，用一条长绳系住气压计，然后将绳子垂下到地面，接着将绳子收起，之后测量绳子的长度即可。绳子的长度就是该建筑物的高度。”

事实上，这个学生已经完全回答出了这个问题，但是问题的答案没有体现出他的物理能力。所以我建议他再想想。我给了他六分钟的时间重新思考这个问题，同时告诉他答案应该体现出一些物理知识。五分钟后，他说他想到了很多答案，其中一个与之前的那个答案有所不同，这个答案是：“将气压计带到建筑物的顶部，将它倾斜在屋顶的边缘，然后放下气压计，接着用秒表计时，最后用物理公式计算出该建筑物的高度。”

此时此刻，我的同事终于接受这个答案了，所以这个学生几乎拿到了满分。我忍不住问这个学生其它的答案分别是什么。他列举了很多其它的答案，然后说：“也许最好的方法就是将这个气压计带到校长室，然后对他说‘校长，这里有个好的气压计，如果你告诉我建筑物的高度，我就会把它给你。’”

于是我问这个学生是否真的不知道这道题的标准答案。他承认其实他知道，但是他已经厌烦了高中和大学的老师总是教他如何去思考。

这个学生的名字叫做波尔，之后不久他就闻名世界了。他在1922年获得了诺贝尔物理学奖。