asp oddness , why specify ASP twice

[davidj411]

for some reason this code works:
*********************************************
<%@ LANGUAGE = Python%>
<%
Response.Write ("test")
%>
*********************************************


but this code does NOT:
*********************************************
<%@ LANGUAGE = Python
Response.Write ("test")
%>
*********************************************

the difference between the two is that i remove "%>" from the first
line and removed "<%" from the next line.
it would seem that this should put all the code into one "ASP block"
but for some reason it does not run.

any ideas? thanks