By the time daylight fully broke, the test paper and draft sheets were distributed.
Gu Chengyu first carefully examined the exam paper, noticing that it was lined with red lines vertically and horizontally. Two plain sheets of paper were given for drafting, requiring the title and main text to be filled in block letters. Candidates must not write answers outside the sealed lines, and any violation would result in a score of zero.
The entire exam paper was a pasted script exercise. A page from the Four Books was chosen, two sheets of paper covered the text on either side, leaving a line in the middle, with separate paper pasted over to cover the digits, requiring the examinees to fill in the blanks.
Gu Chengyu scanned the questions. One of them was the last paragraph of Chapter Eleven of "University," "There is a great way to generate wealth, and many who generate it..." This was a fill-in-the-gap question, as it would be called in modern times.
