Interview techniques

An engineer, a physicist, and a lawyer were being interviewed for a position as chief executive officer of a large corporation.

The engineer was interviewed first, and was asked a long list of questions, ending with "How much is two plus two?"

The engineer excused himself, and made a series of measurements and calculations before returning to the board room and announcing, "Four."

The physicist was next interviewed, and was asked the same questions. Before answering the last question, he excused himself, made for the library, and did a great deal of research.

After a consultation with the United States Bureau of Standards and many calculations, he also announced "Four."

The lawyer was interviewed last, and was asked the same questions. At the end of his interview, before answering the last question, he drew all the shades in the room, looked outside the door to see if anyone was there, checked the telephone for listening devices, and asked "How much do you want it to be?

(taken from http://www.comedy-zone.net/jokes/laugh/lawyers/law5.htm)

Questions:

1. Why were the answers of the engineer and the physicist different from the lawyer’s?

2. Does this funny story show serious aspects of each professional field?

3. Who was the best during this interview in your opinion?

Curious wills

Where there is a will, there is a won't

When Margaret Montgomery of Chicago died in 1959, she left her five cats and a $15,000 trust fund for their care to a former employee, William Fields. The will stipulated that Fields was to use the trust income solely for the cats' care and feeding, including such delicacies as pot roast meat. If, however, he outlived all the cats, Fields would inherit the trust principal. Nine years later the last cat, Fat Nose, died at 20, and Fields, 79, was $15,000 richer.

Probably the largest single group of pets to be named specifically in a will were the 150 or so dogs given $4,3 million by Eleanor Ritchey, an oil company heiress who died in 1968. The dogs were mostly strays she had collected at her 180-acre ranch in Deerfield Beach, Florida. When the last dog, Musketeer, died in June 1984, the entire estate - by then grown to nearly $12 million - went under the will to the Auburn University School of Veterinary Medicine to support research on dog diseases.

Charles Vance Millar, a Canadian lawyer and financier who died a bachelor in 1926, bequeathed the bulk of his fortune to whichever Toronto women gave birth to the largest number of children in the 10 years after his death. Four women eventually tied in the "stork derby" that followed the publication of his will. Each had 9 children, and they shared between them $750,000. A fifth woman who had 10 children was ruled out because 5 were illegitimate.

One of the world's shortest wills was left by an Englishman named Dickens. Contested in 1906 but upheld by the courts, it read simply: "All for mother".

A 19th-century London tavern keeper left his property to his wife - on the condition that every year, on the anniversary of his death, she would walk barefoot to the local market, hold up a lighted candle, and confess aloud how she had nagged him. The theme of the confession was that if her tongue had been shorter, her husband's days would have been longer. If she failed to keep the appointment, she was to receive no more than £20 a year, just enough to live on. Whether the wife decided to take the bigger bequest or spare herself humiliation is not known.

Say whether the following sentences are true or false.

1. The will of Margaret Montgomery stipulated that her former worker Fields was to use the trust income solely for the cats' care and feeding.

2. After the death of the last dog Musketeer the entire estate of Eleanor Ritchey went under the will to the Auburn University School of Veterinary Medicine to support its students and professors.

3. Charles Vance Millar, a Canadian lawyer and financier bequeathed the bulk of his fortune to 5 Toronto women gave birth to the largest number of children in the 10 years after his death.

4. An Englishman named Dickens left one of the shortest will to his children.

5. A 19th-century London tavern keeper left a very humiliating will to his wife.