2026 editorial note: The 2019 reading check-in is preserved in full at the end of this page. A check against the edited Danish text identifies the ear-wiggling examination scene as part of Martin Andersen Nexø’s novel Pelle Erobreren, volume 1, Barndom (1906). The child being examined is Pelle, so he must not be silently equated with the author. The Chinese excerpt title, translator, and exact anthology edition used in 2019 have not yet been identified; this page therefore does not present “How I Took the Exam” as a verified standalone essay.
Table of Contents
The conclusion first
- Verified: Chapter XI of the Danish text shows Pelle being examined at school. Asked to explain a “limb,” he proposes an ear, wiggles his ears, makes the priest, school board, and parents laugh, and receives the top mark in religion.
- Correction required: This is an episode involving the fictional Pelle, not evidence of Nexø recounting his own examination. The author’s standard name is Martin Andersen Nexø, not “Mark Anderson Nexo.”
- Still unknown: Whether “How I Took the Exam” was an editor’s title for a Chinese excerpt, who translated it, which edition contained it, and whether the material about Latin school, seminary, and confirmation came from the same excerpt, an adaptation, or another passage. The old page itself alternates between the Chinese equivalents of “How Did I Take the Exam?” in its title and body, another sign that the title memory is unstable. Those details should not be invented without the title page, contents page, copyright page, and page range.
What the 2019 note got right—and where it outran the text
| Claim in the old note | 2026 finding | How to treat it |
|---|---|---|
| A priest asks about limbs and the child answers “ears” | The event closely matches the Danish text; more precisely, the question concerns what defines a limb, and Pelle is the examinee | Reliable plot summary |
| He learned the trick by watching cattle flick mosquitoes away | The located Danish passage says only that Pelle had practised ear-wiggling the previous summer so as not to be outdone by Rud | Preserve as part of the old memory, not as a textual fact |
| It is the author’s childhood catechism recollection | The source page identifies a novel, Pelle Erobreren, and names the character Pelle | Keep author, narrator, and character distinct |
| The passage fully demonstrates church and human hypocrisy | The located examination scene ends in comic questioning, shared laughter, and a top mark | A reader’s interpretation, not a substitute for plot evidence |
Why the answer “ears” still works
The comedy does not come from a child reciting a definition. An abstract category is abruptly tested against embodied experience. The priest leads from “hand” toward a body part that can move independently; Pelle accepts that logic and supplies something he can visibly control. His answer follows the adult prompt while taking it to an example the adults did not expect. The laughter arises where concept, experience, and performance meet—not simply from a wrong answer.
There is also a useful reading exercise here. After an excerpt, divide your notes into three columns: what the text states, how you summarize it, and how you interpret it. Anything you cannot locate in the source should remain marked “unverified” rather than becoming an authorial fact through memory.
Editions and evidence
- Tekstnet, Danish Society for Language and Literature: *Pelle Erobreren*, volume 1, chapter XI — the complete context for the limb, ears, performance, and top mark; the page also identifies the author, date, and edited text.
- Royal Danish Library: digital scan of the 1906 edition — a first-edition witness against which later retellings can be checked.
- Lex, Denmark’s national knowledge platform: Martin Andersen Nexø — authority for the author’s standard name, dates, childhood, and the distinction between biography and fiction.
- Bibliotek.dk: catalogue record for *Pelle Erobreren* — confirms the work-level record and its first volume, Barndom.
- CiNii Books: catalogue record for the Chinese *Pelle Erobreren*, volume 1 — supports the Chinese book title used in this page’s heading, but does not establish the old excerpt title or translator.
If the cover, copyright page, contents page, and page range of the book read in 2019 turn up, the Chinese excerpt title, translator, and abridgment can be audited properly. Until then, the safest citation is Nexø’s Pelle Erobreren, volume 1, chapter XI.
---
Original 2019 reading note (verbatim archive)
Reading check-in, day six: reading notes on Selected Appreciations of Fine Foreign Prose.
Mark Anderson Nexo’s childhood recollection “How I Took the Exam” tells of an episode in which he sat for a catechism examination. The childhood self he presents is innocent and guileless, and full of curiosity. “Whenever I saw something new and curious, I learned it, even if only for amusement.” Within this innocence there is also a streak of independence. The author mentions that whenever he had to do something serious, he could not muster the energy. Yet this, it seems, became the starting point for most of his progress.
The author then goes on to criticize the hypocrisy of the church and of human nature. Yet amid this filthy darkness, he seems almost unconcerned, still going his own way and answering the priest’s questions with frank spontaneity. In one passage, the priest asks him what limbs are. When the author cannot give a definition, the priest hints that whatever can move is a limb. The author then answers that ears are limbs. Why? Because, from the experience of seeing cattle move their ears to drive away mosquitoes, he had learned to move his own ears.
The hypocrisy of human nature is shown here in full. Everyone proposes sending “me” to Latin school, then to the seminary, and finally making me a priest. But when it comes time to pay, the matter is quietly dropped. The cowherd remains among the livestock, living beneath the blue sky as before. The author says that for a cowherd, everything truly is beset with difficulties. People will not let him go to school, yet they blame him for being foolish; they want to make him lose face in public, and they refuse to let him receive confirmation. Yet amid this inequality, the author is not struck down. Instead, he draws nourishment from nature, brings that plain simplicity into his writing, and unfolds one unadorned, beautiful scene after another.
This article was published at https://blog.lazying.art/html/1778.htm