Here is what you get when you run this test. Note that the bottom line states that there are three assertions with exactly 1 failure (the last assert in test_basic_food.rb). That test fails because I put in 'wrongname' instead of 'Avocado' Actual console output you should get if you run the example unit test: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- llk@nitron:~/ruby/DietManager$ ruby test_basic_food.rb Run options: # Running tests: F Finished tests in 0.001237s, 808.5310 tests/s, 2425.5929 assertions/s. 1) Failure: test1(TestBasicFood) [test_basic_food.rb:20]: This test should fail because the food.name is: Avocado 1 tests, 3 assertions, 1 failures, 0 errors, 0 skips