Exam question 3 · Olympiad: Breakthrough puzzles in made-up languages

Ascertain the value of the Kel numeral "mu lan ro", given that a numeral preceding "lan" multiplies it and one following "lan" is added to it.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, numeral · What happens: ascertain, give, precede, multiply, follow, add · To what, where: value, lan, one, numeral, Kel numeral

This is exam question 3 of lesson 58 «Olympiad: Breakthrough puzzles in made-up languages» of the English course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 value	det
3	value	value	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 numeral	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 numeral	det
6	Kel	Kel	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 numeral	compound
7	numeral	numeral	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 value	nmod
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 ro	punct
9	mu	mu	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 ro	compound
10	lan	lan	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 ro	compound
11	ro	ro	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 numeral	appos
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 ro	punct
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 given	punct
14	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 value	acl
15	that	that	SCONJ	_	22 multiplies	mark
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 numeral	det
17	numeral	numeral	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 multiplies	nsubj
18	preceding	precede	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	17 numeral	acl
19	"	"	PUNCT	_	20 lan	punct
20	lan	lan	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 preceding	obj
21	"	"	PUNCT	_	20 lan	punct
22	multiplies	multiply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 given	advcl
23	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 multiplies	obj
24	and	and	CCONJ	_	31 added	cc
25	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	31 added	nsubj:pass
26	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	25 one	acl
27	"	"	PUNCT	_	28 lan	punct
28	lan	lan	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 following	obj
29	"	"	PUNCT	_	28 lan	punct
30	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	31 added	aux:pass
31	added	add	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	22 multiplies	conj
32	to	to	ADP	_	33 it	case
33	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	31 added	obl
34	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the value of the Kel numeral		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent value=Topic
2	give	participle		the value of the Kel numeral not said here		vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
3	precede	gerund	a numeral not said here	lan		vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme lan=Co-Theme
4	multiply	present	a numeral	lan		vn multiply-108-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
5	follow	gerund		lan		vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lan=Theme
6	add speech: assert	present · passive		one	numeral	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient to it=Co-Patient
7	value			the Kel numeral		nom value «cognition transitive»: of=patient

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Twenty-seven

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Twenty	twenty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root
2	-	-	PUNCT	_	3 seven	punct
3	seven	seven	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	1 Twenty	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

Seventeen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Seventeen	seventeen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Twenty-three

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Twenty	twenty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root
2	-	-	PUNCT	_	3 three	punct
3	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	1 Twenty	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

Twelve

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Twelve	twelve	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/58-olympiad-breakthrough-puzzles-in-made-up-languages/e3/