A civic museum invited a secondary class to test an interactive exhibit. For every term, visitors had to choose between（在两者之间选择）/tʃuːz bɪˈtwiːn/ pressing the green pro button and pressing the red con（反对票）/kɒn/ button. An immediate outcry（强烈抗议）/'aʊtkraɪ/ began when the screen awarded moral scores rather than（而不是）/ˈrɑːðə ðæn/ explanations. Teacher Lena Ortiz suspended the activity and asked for the workbook（工作手册）/'wɜːkbʊk/, source notes, and program in question（所涉及的）/ɪn ˈkwestʃən/. Museum staff, in light of（鉴于）/ɪn laɪt əv/ this confusion, appointed an auditor（审计员）/'ɔːdɪtə/ to observe a second lesson.

The first lesson concerned institutions and offices. Democrat（民主党人）/'deməkræt/ and republican（共和国的）/rɪ'pʌblɪk(ə)n/ could identify affiliations, while democratic（民主的）/demə'krætɪk/ and presidential（总统的）/,prezɪ'denʃəl/ described different political features. A congressman（国会议员）/'kɑŋgrəsmən/ and senator（参议员）/'senətə/ held particular offices; an elector（选举人）/ɪ'lektə/ performed another role. Frontbench（英国议会席中两大正党领袖人物就座的前排）/,frʌnt'bentʃ/ and politburo（（共产党中央委员会的）政治局）/pə'litbjuərəu, 'pɔlit-/ belonged to unlike institutional systems, and representation（代表）/,reprɪzen'teɪʃ(ə)n/ raised a question about who spoke for whom. The exhibit nevertheless instructed pupils to rank every term as good or bad, then treated abstention（弃权）/əb'stenʃ(ə)n/ as an incorrect answer. Its tally（计数器）/'tælɪ/ could count button presses but could not explain them.

Historical government required even greater care. Despot（专制君主）/'despɒt/, dictator（独裁者）/dɪk'teɪtə/, autocratic（专制的）/ɔːtə'krætɪk/ rule, tyranny（暴政）/'tɪr(ə)nɪ/, and tyrant（暴君）/'taɪr(ə)nt/ carried related but distinct meanings. An anarchist（无政府主义者）/'ænəkɪst/ was a person, anarchy（无政府状态）/'ænəkɪ/ a condition, and anarchic（无政府的）/ə'nɑːkɪk/ a description. Colonialist（殖民主义者）/kə'ləʊnjəlɪst/ identified a political position, while geopolitics（地缘政治学）/,dʒɪ（ː）əʊ'pɒlɪtɪks/ named a field of analysis. One archive used mafia（（意）秘密政党）/'mæfiə; 'mɑ:fiɑ:/ for a secret political faction, not for government in general. Extremism（极端主义（尤指政治上的极右或极左））/ɪk'striːmɪz(ə)m; ek-/ and insurrection（暴动）/,ɪnsə'rekʃ(ə)n/ needed evidence about action and context. When one pupil requested a recount（叙述）/rɪ'kaʊnt/, the machine merely replayed its verdict rather than showing the cited definitions.

Movement vocabulary exposed the same design flaw. A confederacy（联盟）/kən'fed(ə)rəsɪ/ and a fellowship（团体）/'felə(ʊ)ʃɪp/ described forms of association; a crusade（改革运动）/kruː'seɪd/ named a sustained campaign. A proponent（支持者）/prə'pəʊnənt/ might espouse（支持）/ɪ'spaʊz; e-/ a proposal, whereas another speaker could deprecate（反对）/'deprɪkeɪt/ it. Supportive（支持的）/sə'pɔːtɪv/ and rebellious（反抗的）/rɪ'beljəs/ described stances, and an activist（积极分子）/'æktɪvɪst/ named a participant. To squawk（抗议）/skwɔːk/ was to protest noisily, not to prove that a complaint lacked merit. The software converted every disagreement into disorder and every shared aim into unanimity.

The final module confused public government with organisational management（管理）/'mænɪdʒm(ə)nt/. Boardroom（会议室）/'bɔːdruːm; -rʊm/, managerial（[管理] 管理的）/mænə'dʒiːrɪəl/, stockholder（股东）/'stɒkhəʊldə/, occupational（职业的）/ɒkjʊ'peɪʃ(ə)n(ə)l/, workload（工作量）/'wɜːkləʊd/, and manageable（易管理的）/'mænɪdʒəb(ə)l/ belonged to a workplace case. Patronage（赞助）/ˈpeɪtrənɪdʒ/ and corruption（贪污）/kə'rʌpʃ(ə)n/ were risks; maladministration（管理不善）/,mæləd,mɪnɪ'streʃən/ described poor administration, while technocracy（专家管理）/tek'nɒkrəsɪ/ described rule by technical experts. An unprofessional（非职业性的）/ʌnprə'feʃ(ə)n(ə)l/ act was not automatically illegal. Legalise（使合法化（等于legalize））/'li:ɡəlaiz/ described changing legal status, whereas legitimize（使…合法）/lɪ'dʒɪtɪmaɪz/ could mean making an action appear acceptable. Obligation（义务）/ɒblɪ'geɪʃ(ə)n/ named a duty, and obligatory（义务的）/ə'blɪgət(ə)rɪ/ described what was required. The categories had to remain separate even when one case involved several of them.

Lena told the exhibit team, “Students can evaluate an argument, but first they need to know whether a word names a person, an institution, an action, or a judgement.” On that basis（据此）/ɒn ðæt ˈbeɪsɪs/, a programmer（[自][计] 程序设计员）/'prəʊgræmə/ rebuilt the exhibit on a microcomputer（微电脑）/'maɪkrə(ʊ)kɒm,pjuːtə/ and cleared the old score from its cache（电脑高速缓冲存储器）/kæʃ/. Extra RAM（随机存取存储器（random access memory的缩写））/ræm/ allowed each answer to open a definition, source passage, and contrasting example. Acting on behalf of（代表）/ɒn bɪˈhɑːf əv/ museum leadership, the auditor issued a simple requirement: make the data available（公开提供数据）/meɪk ðə ˈdeɪtə əˈveɪləbəl/ and test every link. At this stage（现阶段）/æt ðɪs steɪdʒ/, the two buttons no longer（不再）/nəʊ ˈlɒŋɡə/ controlled the lesson. Pupils classified terms first and debated claims afterward, in line with（与……一致）/ɪn laɪn wɪð/ the evidence displayed.