English test

Today I had a small English test. I had to read German sentences and translate them into English. At the end of the class when everyone was finished, the teacher read us the right answers. Unfortunately, I got almost all of them wrong because I wrote the most common way of saying the sentences instead of how the class was taught. For example, I wrote down "They were running out of food but still didn't want to try lobster." and the right answer was "In spite of shortened rations on board, they preferred not trying lobster." I can't imagine anyone talking this kind of English!