sincere | Opinion Poll, Part 2

The following is a passage written by a person you are all acquainted with over LJ. I am taking a survey to recruit opinions on it. It's a pretty short excerpt, but I need opinions, and would really like an unbiased view. So pretend y'all are in English lit class, and answer the following questions... (In case you have problems with reading comprehension, I'll add that you don't need to be an English major to answer these questions; the preceding is a humorous recall back to the days when most of us were in English lit class and had to answer questions like this on a daily basis; it is not an elitist exclusion of the "inferior" non-lit majors.)

Mark's smile was so contagious that Kathrine had to smile back at him. "Thank you so much," he said. "I needed some feedback on my report, and your survey is going to be very helpful. I really appreciate the work you've done."

"Not a problem," she said, pleased with herself. "You're taking this very well, considering that most of the respondents wanted you to rewrite parts of the report..." They talked more about the repsonses before the workday was over; he thanked her again, and asked her to help him out in the future, too. She went home feeling her effort had been worth it.

Kathrine was surprised, the next day, to find Alli waiting for her at her desk. Alli waved a piece of paper in the air. "Hey," she said. "Have you seen this?"

Of course Kathrine had seen it -- it was a copy of the survey she'd written, with an additional page of the report tacked on.

"Mark's been handing it out to all his closest friends," Alli said, raising an eyebrow. "Guess your survey wasn't good enough."

Now please answer these four questions:

1. How do you think Kathrine should feel at the end of that passage?
Amused? Irritated? Frustrated?

2. Can you believe that an actual person would do what Mark did?
How would you feel if you were lied to and used like that?

3. Do you think Mark's gratitude was sincere?
Do you think he's trying to get out of more work by asking his friends to tell him what they think?

4. If you were Kathrine, how would you approach Mark about this?
Tell him he's a liar? Tell him she's not going to try to help him with his reports anymore? Get Alli to send a goth Sailor Saturn after him?

All comments will be screened, but this is more for Kathrine's personal satisfaction than because Mark is ever going to get the result of this survey. I thought, at least I should do one survey that's going to get listened to.