Failure to Communicate

We have been studying pattern matching in my advanced algorithms class. Pattern matching is just finding a piece of text (the pattern) in a document. We have algorithms for doing that effectively.

The homework question reads:

Given a pattern P and a text T, determine if P is contained within T or if P can be split into two pieces so that the first piece matches the end of T and the second piece matches the first of T. In other words, P is found by wrapping around T. Hint, think elegant (and simple).

One of my Asian students sends me an email: I didn't understand the hint you gave to us for problem 5. "Hint, think elegant (and simple)" Is this an example? in which elegant is a pattern?

So funny!

This rivals my experience a year ago in which a Nigerian student had written (in a paper I was presenting), "This cannot possibly be true". In his mind he was saying, "It possibly is not true". I explained that "cannot possibly" is even stronger than "cannot". It means it is absolutely impossible for it to be true under any circumstances. He argued, "No, the possibly creates doubt." I told him that is not what it means. I STILL don't think he believes me.