Several of his classmates raised their heads inquiringly at the noise.

But he did not notice.

He was too absorbed in his pencil-sharpening and in thinking thoughts far away from both pencil-sharpening and Greek history.
"Of course you all understand that the examination papers are to be written with ink." Miss Wilson addressed the class in general, but her eyes rested on Joe.
Just as it was about as fine as it could possibly be the point broke, and Joe began over again.
"I am afraid, Joe, that you annoy the class," Miss Wilson said in final desperation.
He put the pencil down, closed the knife with a snap, and returned to his blank staring at the blackboard.

What did he know about Draco?
or Solon?
or the rest of the Greeks?
It was a flunk, and that was all there was to it.

No need for him to look at the rest of the questions, and even if he did know the answers to two or three, there was no use in writing them down.