Jason stared at his homework -- ten word problems. So far he had done only two. Then his eye fell on his computer. Maybe a quick video game would clear his brain. He flipped on the computer. The screen glowed, and an unfamiliar pattern appeared. "Hey," Jason said aloud to nobody in particular. "What’s going on?"
The computer replied, "Look, do you want my help?"
Jason did some quick thinking and answered, "Sure, I could use some help."
The computer then responded, "All right then, let’s get started." The computer began talking so fast Jason couldn’t understand a word it was saying. He just sat and satred. The computer took a brief pause to ask, "Why aren’t you writing this down? I’ve repeated the whole assignment four times." Then it started up again and kept talking.
Jason became totally flustered. At first he was confused, then sad, then angry. His maddening impulse was to shout, so he did. "You stupid computer! Can’t you understand I can’t think that fast? I don’t want your help after all!"
The computer felt insulted. It shut down and never worked again. Jason finished his homework by himself, gladly. He never tried to get out of doing it again.
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