This makes no sense. How old is the shepherd. How is a child supposed to know. Sounds more like they are to infer more into the question. Gee like I do not hav enough problems with word problems. So ask these type of questions is absolutely Nuts.
“This makes no sense. How old is the shepherd. How is a child supposed to know.”
That’s the point: the child needs to learn that some questions DON’T make sense, and don’t have enough relevant information to answer (or are even such a non-sequitur that it’s just straight-up nonsense). After being hammered with “given this information, answer the question” a kid needs be reminded that sometimes there isn’t one.
HOWEVER ... methinks this is yet another example of Common Core trying to instill advanced skills where there isn’t enough basics to grasp ‘em. Yes, a student needs to understand that sometimes there isn’t enough information to answer a question, and that the information provided may be irrelevant, and that it’s OK to say “given X we cannot answer Y”. CC is notorious for requiring EXACT answers, adhering precisely to a given process to the abject exclusion of other sensible answers & paths thereto; what was the “correct” answer to such a “there isn’t an answer” question? are other correct but different answers deemed “wrong”? is there any credit given to valiant attempts to solve the unsolvable (the sheep-breeding-cycle answer was surprisingly insightful)? what if someone DID manage to answer the question after all? was this question presented abruptly (answers indicate it was), or was there a sensible introduction of the concept of incomplete information?