The often quoted example is this:
1. What is a lark
a) plant
b) animal
c) mineral
d) insect
e) none of the above
The problem arises is this:
a lark is a type of small bird
but
It is also the name of a brand of cigarrette before smoking Newports was the "in" thing in the black community. Because young children in the 60s/70s where far more likely to be familiar with the cigarette (because in the 60s, you could advertise cigarettes on TV during the middle of cartoons) than the bird. I bet very few of us have even see a lark, but we are all familiar with Joe Camel.
The student then does poorly on the test, gets put in resource classes. Not because he is stupid, but because he isn't familiar with those concepts. Just as I did poorly on the verbal portion of the GRE. It isn't because I am ignorant, I am just not in a place where people use proper English.
