Tolkien, Turing, and Nonlinear Reasoning

I just finished giving a midterm exam in one of my classes. Of course, I spent much time thinking about the bonus questions, which I call Nonlinear Reasoning, being a mixture of course topics and humor.

One of bonus questions was the following:

(The Turing Test, proposed by Alan Turing, determines whether a machine can be considered intelligent or not.)

Those who are versed in the War of the Ring could easily deduce that the correct answer to this question is "One Ring":

Sauron and Gollum are not interested in passing the Turing Test because they are only interested in the One Ring.

However, most of my students just answered "ring".

Since I am not a terror teacher, I guess I will have to give these students partial points. However, I also have to be reasonable and just in giving it to them. Since there are twenty Rings of Power in all – Three for the Elven-kings under the sky; Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone; Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die; One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne – I have decided to give them 1/20 points or 0.05 points.

As a teacher, it really is difficult at times to balance being considerate and just to students. In medio virtus: virtue is to be found at the middle, a Latin saying goes. But I think I may just have hit the middle in this recent predicament.