A pleasant and instructive afternoon

On the first page of a collection of P.G. Wodehouse short stories, a previous reader of the book has helpfully highlighted the following phrase in pink: "looking like a character out of a Greek tragedy pursued by the Fates." The line occurs in the story "Uncle Fred Flits By," undoubtedly among the funniest stories ever written, simply bursting with outrageously wonderful lines, colorful characters, and a ridiculous plot, but the mystery highlighter (and I'm going to be hopelessly sexist and assume she's female simply because of the pink ink) has selected insipid passages on which to leave her mark:

"slipping his collar and getting loose"

"a pleasant and instructive afternoon"

"which you with your pure mind would scarcely credit"

"his mood was one of sober ecstasy"

"exchanging glances with a grey parrot which hung in a cage in the window"

"bowed down with weight of woe"

"from the recesses of his costume"

In fact, the only really memorable image our highlighter found worthy of selection was "up he came from behind the settee like a leaping salmon." In another story she finds it necessary to highlight the phrase "golfing garrulity" and a reference to Spanish influenza, but the highlighting stops entirely after about 40 pages.

Why did she stop? And why, for that matter, did she ever begin? Was she reading this for a class? Did our mystery highlighter expect to be required to regurgitate information from the story on a test? If so, why not highlight more substantive passages? Who gives tests on Wodehouse anyway? And does that teacher, whoever he or she may be, really want students to be able to remind him of the phrase "a pleasant and instructive afternoon"?

The mystery highlighter has entirely overlooked the meat of the story--the chaos occasioned when Uncle Fred (aka Lord Ickenham) walks into an empty house and, pretending to be its owner, resolves a disagreement between a young girl who wants to get married and her parents, who disapprove of the potential groom simply because he is an assistant at a jellied-eel shop:

"But surely," said Lord Ickenham, "that speaks well for him. The capacity to jelly eel seems to me to argue intelligence of a high order. It isn't everyone who can do it, by any means. I know if someone came to me and said 'Jelly this eel!' I should be nonplussed. And so, or I am very mistaken, would be Ramsay MacDonald and Winston Churchill."

I can imagine how this might turn up on a multiple-choice exam:

According to P.G. Wodehouse, which of the following persons would be nonplussed on being asked to jelly an eel?
A. Winston Churchill
B. Lord Ickenham
C. Ramsay MacDonald
D. A and C but not B
E. None of the above
G. All of the above

Anyone approaching "Uncle Fred Flits By" in anticipation of this kind of question is simply unprepared to fully appreciate the wonders of Wodehouse. It's no wonder she finally put down the pink highlighter. I just hope she didn't give up and put down the book.