Feeling Green

Everyone else in the 10th grade Algebra II class seemed to have finished the math problem. They listened patiently to S, who was called upon by the teacher.

I have a bag of 3 red apples, 1 green apple, a lime, 4 tomatoes, and an orange. What is the probability that if I pull out 3 fruits, 2 of them will be green?

Finally, the teacher walked through the problem with her.

T: "How many fruits are there total? How many fruits do you want? How many green fruits are there?'

S: "10...3....... 1."

T: "Is there only one green fruit?"

S: "Yes. An apple." *The class laughs*

T: "S, what color are limes?"

*"Green!" her neighbor whispers'*

S: "OHH..." She proceeds to get the question correct.

As it turned out, I got the question wrong myself. I can never remember if limes are yellow or green: in my family, our citrus consist of lemons, calamansi, and dalandan. Over-sized calamansi with green insides are called limónes.

English can be tricky sometimes -- even in a math class.