the questionable answer

For as long as I have learnt how to speak English --- and I think this happened whilst in Morogoro, Tanzania --- I have been fascinated by the what makes something a question?

Most importantly why does a question demand and answer, I mean does asking question demand that one should answer the question?  Is it not possible to just listen to the question and speak what ever you want?

Alas, that is not what I am writing about about ---

What I have begun to detest, is actually not what a persons response is, but what the question is.

I think, a lot of people ask the wrong questions.

and more than that

I think people give the wrong answer(s) to the question.

Le me explain these two, related, 'annoyances'.  Lets say, I was to ask you a simple question:

What is one plus one equal to?

I'm pretty sure you know the answer to that.  Now lets say I ask you the following:

Is one plus one equals to two?

Mathematically, which is how I think, these questions can only be represented as:

1. Solve: 1+1
2. RTP (required to prove): 1+1=2

The second question is harder, I'd first have to prove what addition is? Prove that the LHS(left hand side: 1+1) is equal to the RHS(right hand side: 2).

In most cases we assume we know what addition is and how it is applied, or in this case we will recall from memory what the answer to 1+1 is.

Where am I going with this?

I think if you are being asked a question, you need to take your time to understand not only what you are being asked but what your answer inferrers to be true ---

in the example (2) above, we assumed quite a few things:

1. that 1 is a number
2. a generally accepted definition of what '+' sign means and how it operates on two numbers
3. that the symbol 2 is also a number
4. numbers can have the '+' operator applied to them
5. what the quantity of the symbol 1 and 2 is

Surely, you could neglect of this and say, I'm talking out of my ass --- but let me put these into layman's terms:

Err, Mr. President do you know Ms Monica Lowinsky?

or 

Err, Mr. President, did you or did you not have a sexual relation with Ms Monica Lowinsky?

Now, obviously, you can see that by answering question two, be it a yes or no --- You have inferred that a yes to the first question.

Now, where I'm going with this (trust me, I'm about to fall asleep, so I need to close this off) is simple:

When being asked a question, ask the person who is asking you a question, what it is they want to know?

and by definition you cannot ask a question of which the answer is something you already know --- and thus you (the person being grilled) can refuse to answer the question, because the answer is already given.

or you (the person being asked the question) can then decide if that [the thing that the person wants to know] is something you want to share.

Simple huh?