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Most Pointless Assignments Ever

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CabbyArrant
Posts: 779 - Karma: 4,120
What are the most pointless assignments you have ever had to do for school?



I'll get it started-

At the beginning of the semester I had to predict who would win the Oscars for an English assignment.

I also had to write a 200 page ethnography as a semester project my final semester of Highschool.


I fucking hate english
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Apr 13 2016 4:23PM
118 17
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270on420out
Posts: 7492 - Karma: 50,771
Those questions on the SAT that ask you how to structure sentences. (The ones that one of the answer choices is always DELETE the underlined portion).
Apr 13 2016 4:28PM
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FrenchFry
Posts: 969 - Karma: 3,432
Most of that stuff isn't "pointless". The oscars one sounds like your teachers wanted you to establish an argument and then defend it. Basic essay format. He/she wanted to see how well you can write. Take grade 12 english seriously it'll help you in university.
Apr 13 2016 4:30PM
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CabbyArrant
Posts: 779 - Karma: 4,120
FrenchFryMost of that stuff isn't "pointless". The oscars one sounds like your teachers wanted you to establish an argument and then defend it. Basic essay format. He/she wanted to see how well you can write. Take grade 12 english seriously it'll help you in university.




no the oscars one was literally multiple choice where your grade is completely dependant on who wins. It was totally idiotic.

FYI: This class is COMP 102 I'm in college already lol
Apr 13 2016 4:34PM
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CabbyArrant
Posts: 779 - Karma: 4,120
FrenchFryMost of that stuff isn't "pointless". The oscars one sounds like your teachers wanted you to establish an argument and then defend it. Basic essay format. He/she wanted to see how well you can write. Take grade 12 english seriously it'll help you in university.


I'm not saying that any subject as a whole is pointless. I'm a first year engineering major so I recognize what a lot of people characterize as pointless is what I currently or will deal with daily.
Apr 13 2016 4:36PM
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FrenchFry
Posts: 969 - Karma: 3,432
CabbyArrantno the oscars one was literally multiple choice where your grade is completely dependant on who wins. It was totally idiotic.

FYI: This class is COMP 102 I'm in college already lol


Haha oh. Yea that is ridiculous. I would have refused to do that.
Apr 13 2016 4:41PM
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CabbyArrant
Posts: 779 - Karma: 4,120
FrenchFryHaha oh. Yea that is ridiculous. I would have refused to do that.


It got turned into the deans office somehow so it never actually got turned into a grade but it was ridiculous
Apr 13 2016 4:59PM
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Rennis_Deynolds
Posts: 2739 - Karma: 19,061
Thats a sick essay topic
Apr 13 2016 6:39PM
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Brue
Posts: 392 - Karma: 1,948
The referenced post has been removed.


Claim x10
Apr 13 2016 8:22PM
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bait
Posts: 1226 - Karma: 3,578
Math past grade 6 or 7 is very pointless. I have yet to factor polynomials in real life.
Teachers say that its not what your learning, its how you lean it and how to develop good work habits. Since I believe that this is the case, They should teach plumbing, first aid, general home maintenance and art. Shit that actually helps later on IMO

don't hate just an idea
Apr 13 2016 8:38PM
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lgward
Posts: 301 - Karma: 404
the only thing that's stayed with me throughout my "educational" experience is the fact that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell

but like teach me how to adult please, i still have no fucking clue how to do taxes
Apr 13 2016 9:11PM
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edai
Posts: 4983 - Karma: 4,632
Just got assigned a 10 page research paper for AP Lang and the test is in like a few weeks. Shits so unnecessary, the teacher just needs a grade in the computer for quarter 4
Apr 13 2016 9:12PM
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profa_212
Posts: 8620 - Karma: 32,325
The referenced post has been removed.


This. Like what the fuck that's absolutely rediculous
Apr 13 2016 9:49PM
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Slush
Posts: 1905 - Karma: 12,901
The referenced post has been removed.


That's not an essay that's a book
Apr 13 2016 11:33PM
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Slush
Posts: 1905 - Karma: 12,901
Also one time we had to analyze the rhetoric in the spider man theme song. This was AP English. My teacher was totally senile but whatever
Apr 13 2016 11:34PM
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CabbyArrant
Posts: 779 - Karma: 4,120
BrueClaim x10


it wasn't 200 full pages. There were over 120 pages of appendices containing interviews surveys and everything else to do with the project. there were probably only 90 complete pages of writing in total. this was all I did for the entire semester in that class though. A local college taught that class at my highschool for dual credit So that was a Comp 102 assignment from that college. I was stupid though and didn't take it for dual credit so I had to take both 101 and 102 over again
Apr 13 2016 11:53PM
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CHORIZO
Posts: 2003 - Karma: 10,039
my essays for college applications lol high 5
Apr 13 2016 11:59PM
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spliff.Life
Posts: 7847 - Karma: 1,550
Results are looking great, everybody loves lunch.
Apr 14 2016 12:53AM
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LukasSchroeder
Posts: 1460 - Karma: 2,683
in my phys ed class in grade 11, we had to hand in a self evaluation after every sport/ activity we did. you had to give yourself a mark out of 20 and given reasons. literally the dumbest shit ever.
also don't understand math/ science teachers who assign 10-20 questions after each class. totally pointless when there are only 3 or 4 different types of questions we could get from what was taught.
Apr 14 2016 3:14AM
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Lonely
Posts: 6596 - Karma: 59,624
baitMath past grade 6 or 7 is very pointless. I have yet to factor polynomials in real life.
Teachers say that its not what your learning, its how you lean it and how to develop good work habits. Since I believe that this is the case, They should teach plumbing, first aid, general home maintenance and art. Shit that actually helps later on IMO

don't hate just an idea


Not hating, I agree that they should teach those things. But Calculas is helpful af if you don't have a calculator. You can solve complex problems like related rates and area under the curve (which both have real life application) much faster.
Apr 14 2016 7:11AM
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CabbyArrant
Posts: 779 - Karma: 4,120
LonelyNot hating, I agree that they should teach those things. But Calculas is helpful af if you don't have a calculator. You can solve complex problems like related rates and area under the curve (which both have real life application) much faster.


Algebra skills are necessary for calculus though. You need to be able to factor a lot of times especially for optimization problems or finding continuity
Apr 14 2016 12:05PM
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crotchvent
Posts: 1527 - Karma: 2,182
Stats classes everything is super stupid.
Apr 14 2016 9:34PM
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magco1271
Posts: 236 - Karma: 376
Latin, it is taken way to seriously in my school and the projects are crazy along with the tests given practically every week on top up constant vocab quizzes. It's funny how the teacher expects us to do well even though she bombards us with work even thought we have other classes.
Apr 14 2016 9:37PM
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CabbyArrant
Posts: 779 - Karma: 4,120
magco1271Latin, it is taken way to seriously in my school and the projects are crazy along with the tests given practically every week on top up constant vocab quizzes. It's funny how the teacher expects us to do well even though she bombards us with work even thought we have other classes.


Are you in college yet
Apr 14 2016 11:05PM
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magco1271
Posts: 236 - Karma: 376
CabbyArrantAre you in college yet


Nope and Ik it's a whole different world and I'm bitching about nothing
Apr 14 2016 11:06PM
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CabbyArrant
Posts: 779 - Karma: 4,120
magco1271Nope and Ik it's a whole different world and I'm bitching about nothing

No I'm not here to lecture or anything I was just generally curious because what school teaches Latin. I love college but it is soul destroying at times I'm just excited to move onto my core classes in the next 2 semesters.

i had to write an 8 page paper this week about the philosophical relationship between aristotles concept of supreme being and the early Christian concept of god.

That shit I know I will never use later in life
Apr 14 2016 11:12PM
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Mingg
Posts: 13936 - Karma: 48,464
A dude on here had to find a quote from someone who's last name started with the same letter as their first name or something like that.

I thought it was absolutely retarded.
Apr 15 2016 12:36AM
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Egg.roll
Posts: 170 - Karma: 397
MinggA dude on here had to find a quote from someone who's last name started with the same letter as their first name or something like that.

I thought it was absolutely retarded.


I was thinking the same thing. Here's the thread: https://www.newschoolers.com/forum/thread/834626/Skiing-Quotes
Apr 15 2016 3:20AM
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KravtZ
Posts: 6637 - Karma: 2,629
In college i put off my art requirement till my last semester. I took ceramics because I thought it would be cool and I had to take one anyways and it fit into my schedule well.

I went into that semester with a 3.53 GPA. The teacher was ex military and was this super hardcore teacher. I never missed a class, busted my ass, but am not the most creative and make some ok pots and shit. She gave me a B- for the class because my pots didn't have good thickness in the bottom, not perfectly, round, etc.

Brough my GPA down to a 3.49 which took me off the honors grad / deans list for that quarter. I went in and spoke to her about it and she bumped me up to a b+.

But that was so fucking stupid considering I was a finance/econ major and crushed it in my respective major. If she didn't bump me up I was going straight to the dean.
Apr 15 2016 1:20PM
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Nikolaus
Posts: 863 - Karma: 995
For a six week period in p.e. i had to get my heart rate up to 140+ for 25 minutes even though my resting rate is 60, which was impossible doing what we did. I only managed to do it twice and got a d. I am so ready to graduate in may
Apr 15 2016 1:58PM
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oxiclean
Posts: 615 - Karma: 680
I have this one teacher that grades stuff insanely easy. I got an A on a 200 point essay that I didn't even do.
Apr 15 2016 5:43PM
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Mingg
Posts: 13936 - Karma: 48,464
KravtZIn college i put off my art requirement till my last semester. I took ceramics because I thought it would be cool and I had to take one anyways and it fit into my schedule well.

I went into that semester with a 3.53 GPA. The teacher was ex military and was this super hardcore teacher. I never missed a class, busted my ass, but am not the most creative and make some ok pots and shit. She gave me a B- for the class because my pots didn't have good thickness in the bottom, not perfectly, round, etc.

Brough my GPA down to a 3.49 which took me off the honors grad / deans list for that quarter. I went in and spoke to her about it and she bumped me up to a b+.

But that was so fucking stupid considering I was a finance/econ major and crushed it in my respective major. If she didn't bump me up I was going straight to the dean.


Gen eds are the fucking worst. I spend more time doing work/studying for them than I do classes for my major and still do shittier in them than my real classes. Gen eds fucking destroy my GPA and it's shitty. I have a 4.0 this semester except for this one gen ed which will probs pull my grade down to like a 3.8. So fuck that.

/rant
Apr 15 2016 10:48PM
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e.littt
Posts: 414 - Karma: 2,348
NikolausFor a six week period in p.e. i had to get my heart rate up to 140+ for 25 minutes even though my resting rate is 60, which was impossible doing what we did. I only managed to do it twice and got a d. I am so ready to graduate in may


I hated those stupid fitness things in p.e. where they expected everyone so be some magical athlete.. Like I signed up for this class so play dodgeball not to see how many pushups I can do.
Apr 18 2016 1:59AM
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connecticunt
Posts: 842 - Karma: 1,525
Not an assignment but an entire class.

At the liberal arts university I went to it was required to take just like a random bullshit elective that the uni assigned you and mine was titled "welcome to college." It was kind of an English class where we had to read books that had anything to do with being in college, even books that were just set in a college campus, and we had to read two a week and talk about our life. We never even talked about the assigned books. Not once. I also ended up failing for some unknown reason even though there was no rubric or structure to the entire class.
Apr 18 2016 3:05AM
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altie29
Posts: 168 - Karma: 562
this argument summary i'm working on right now. topic: Descartes argues that his first piece of knowledge (something of which he can be certain) is of the form "I think therefore I am". Explain.
Apr 18 2016 4:36AM
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urbanjib
Posts: 1801 - Karma: 255
baitMath past grade 6 or 7 is very pointless. I have yet to factor polynomials in real life.
Teachers say that its not what your learning, its how you lean it and how to develop good work habits. Since I believe that this is the case, They should teach plumbing, first aid, general home maintenance and art. Shit that actually helps later on IMO

don't hate just an idea


Im in a apprenticeship to be an Electrician, and wish I had paid way better attention in every math class in high school. Also same with the Math I took in college. Trig sucks
Apr 18 2016 5:29AM
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7springsprod
Posts: 2661 - Karma: 3,181
connecticuntNot an assignment but an entire class.

At the liberal arts university I went to


Well there you go
Apr 18 2016 9:45AM
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connecticunt
Posts: 842 - Karma: 1,525
7springsprodWell there you go


Trust me if I didn't absolutely have to go there I wouldn't have. It was the absolute worst.

Shout out to sacred heart university you suck cocks.
Apr 18 2016 1:25PM
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addie.
Posts: 350 - Karma: 1,430
I think making kids that play sports do PE is fucking stupid. Why make kids do PE during the day when they could be doing things that they dont normally do, like community service or art? I think if kids dont play sports they should definitely be required to do PE, but if a kid goes to soccer practice or skiing every day after school they shouldn't have to go to fucking gym class. They're much better served contributing to the community or learning a new art like writing or music. I played soccer and skied both full time in middle school and high school (I'm now a junior), and i hated PE when it was required because I didn't have any time to do homework! usually i would just skip PE to do my homework because after school i would ski and then go to soccer practice and get home at 10 with no time for anything.
Apr 18 2016 10:46PM
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DirtYStylE
Posts: 3635 - Karma: 8,774
We made "kindness bracelets" in my HS psychology/sociology class. The idea was to wear it for a week and to be inspired to do random acts of kindness. I wore it until the string broke.
Apr 18 2016 10:57PM
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urbanjib
Posts: 1801 - Karma: 255
addie.I think making kids that play sports do PE is fucking stupid. Why make kids do PE during the day when they could be doing things that they dont normally do, like community service or art? I think if kids dont play sports they should definitely be required to do PE, but if a kid goes to soccer practice or skiing every day after school they shouldn't have to go to fucking gym class. They're much better served contributing to the community or learning a new art like writing or music. I played soccer and skied both full time in middle school and high school (I'm now a junior), and i hated PE when it was required because I didn't have any time to do homework! usually i would just skip PE to do my homework because after school i would ski and then go to soccer practice and get home at 10 with no time for anything.


Probably because most kids dont play sports/ski everyday, or have the funds to do so.
Apr 19 2016 3:31PM
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Panta.Pow
Posts: 111 - Karma: 307
One of my friends in middle school would always disrespect this really assholish english teacher who was a purebred feminist who would start every class pointing out how women did this this and this and didn't get recognized or how women can do X, Y and Z better than men ect etc.
Now my friend wasn't the type to get pushed around like that and would constantly talk back. (Note - he believes men are better than women at everything and that women have smaller brains, are stupider and should not be allowed to vote or drive)
Anyways, she assigns him a 500 word essay on why women are better than men for the next week.
He shows up to class the next week with a 50 page essay where he explains from A to Z all possible ways in which men are better than women. It's citing research from the 70's up to the 2010's. He didn't just copy and paste shit online, he literally read a book published in the 1900's by a Neuroscientists and quotes passages from it (On the Mental Inferiority of Women). He hands this in and the day after the english teacher goes mental on him and while screaming kicks him out of the class.

He got suspended for a week and banned from english class.
Apr 19 2016 4:15PM
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addie.
Posts: 350 - Karma: 1,430
urbanjibProbably because most kids dont play sports/ski everyday, or have the funds to do so.


Your town doesn't have parks and rec sports teams? Mine did. And after school sports you could receive financial aid for. That's pretty damn cheap... and if those kids could afford that they would definitely be better served going to real classes instead of bullshitting their way through PE like I did. I was the most athletic kid in my class and I never participated in PE, nor did anyone else in middle school.
Apr 19 2016 8:27PM
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James.May
Posts: 494 - Karma: 321
CabbyArrantit wasn't 200 full pages. There were over 120 pages of appendices containing interviews surveys and everything else to do with the project. there were probably only 90 complete pages of writing in total. this was all I did for the entire semester in that class though. A local college taught that class at my highschool for dual credit So that was a Comp 102 assignment from that college. I was stupid though and didn't take it for dual credit so I had to take both 101 and 102 over again


That math doesnt add up... we know what class you skipped!
Apr 19 2016 9:40PM
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CabbyArrant
Posts: 779 - Karma: 4,120
James.MayThat math doesnt add up... we know what class you skipped!


It's all approximations the actual page count on it was 197 pages
Apr 20 2016 3:43PM
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TrickyDick470
Posts: 443 - Karma: 2,346
baitMath past grade 6 or 7 is very pointless. I have yet to factor polynomials in real life.
Teachers say that its not what your learning, its how you lean it and how to develop good work habits. Since I believe that this is the case, They should teach plumbing, first aid, general home maintenance and art. Shit that actually helps later on IMO

don't hate just an idea


I would agree somewhat, though it depends on what career path you take.

Learning all that stuff can help with your thinking/reasoning skills as well, even if you don't need to factor polynomials like you said.

...

Anyways, I think English class had the most pointless assignments in high school. In college, I took a class called "Intro to Visual Communication" during my senior year thinking it would be an easy bullshit class since I needed one last humanities credit. Turns out it actually required a bunch of assignments and had required attendance so I couldn't skip without killing my grade. It wasn't a pointless class for all but for me it certainly was.
Apr 20 2016 4:26PM
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Deforestation
Posts: 1606 - Karma: 3,192
LonelyNot hating, I agree that they should teach those things. But Calculas is helpful af if you don't have a calculator. You can solve complex problems like related rates and area under the curve (which both have real life application) much faster.


Name one situation in the last five years where you (a) didn't have a calculator on hand or (b) couldn't quickly get a calculator and needed to use calculas to solve a real world problem.

Example, you were in the forest and needed to figure out how fast a river was flowing in order to see if it was theoretically reasonable generate power for your dead calculatur using a homemade waterwheel.
Apr 21 2016 5:37PM
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Deforestation
Posts: 1606 - Karma: 3,192
connecticuntTrust me if I didn't absolutely have to go there I wouldn't have. It was the absolute worst.

Shout out to sacred heart university you suck cocks.


What would make you "have to go there"? I mean there are a buch of schools in the area... Fairfield U??

addie.I think making kids that play sports do PE is fucking stupid. Why make kids do PE during the day when they could be doing things that they dont normally do, like community service or art? I think if kids dont play sports they should definitely be required to do PE, but if a kid goes to soccer practice or skiing every day after school they shouldn't have to go to fucking gym class. They're much better served contributing to the community or learning a new art like writing or music. I played soccer and skied both full time in middle school and high school (I'm now a junior), and i hated PE when it was required because I didn't have any time to do homework! usually i would just skip PE to do my homework because after school i would ski and then go to soccer practice and get home at 10 with no time for anything.


Yeah I agree. At my school, if you play a varsity sport, you don't have to go to gym while the sport is in season. We usually don't go out of season either though, PE is a joke.
Apr 21 2016 5:56PM
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CabbyArrant
Posts: 779 - Karma: 4,120
MinggGen eds are the fucking worst. I spend more time doing work/studying for them than I do classes for my major and still do shittier in them than my real classes. Gen eds fucking destroy my GPA and it's shitty. I have a 4.0 this semester except for this one gen ed which will probs pull my grade down to like a 3.8. So fuck that.

/rant


I'm really regretting taking chem 2 this semester I have an A in my four other classes so instead of a 4.0 I'm going to get 3.4 since I have a C. Which is stupid because I don't even need to take Chem 2
Apr 21 2016 6:03PM
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Lonely
Posts: 6596 - Karma: 59,624
DeforestationName one situation in the last five years where you (a) didn't have a calculator on hand or (b) couldn't quickly get a calculator and needed to use calculas to solve a real world problem.

Example, you were in the forest and needed to figure out how fast a river was flowing in order to see if it was theoretically reasonable generate power for your dead calculatur using a homemade waterwheel.

S.A.T had a calculator, but could take the derivative much faster than it would have taken me to plug into a calculator and do the long way. Saved me time on the test. There's many aspects of Calculas you will never use, but having the understanding can help in other ways
Apr 21 2016 9:00PM
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