Exam question 3 · Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole

Given that a ton is approximately one thousand kilograms, ascertain the probable mass of a school bag of which it is asserted that it «weighs a ton».

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: ton · What happens: give, be, ascertain, assert, weigh · To what, where: probable mass, ton

This is exam question 3 of lesson 44 «Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole» of the language 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	Given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 kilograms	case
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 kilograms	mark
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 ton	det
4	ton	ton	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 kilograms	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 kilograms	cop
6	approximately	approximately	ADV	_	8 thousand	advmod
7	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 thousand	compound
8	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 kilograms	nummod
9	kilograms	kilogram	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 ascertain	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 kilograms	punct
11	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 mass	det
13	probable	probable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 mass	amod
14	mass	mass	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 ascertain	obj
15	of	of	ADP	_	18 bag	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 bag	det
17	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 bag	compound
18	bag	bag	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 mass	nmod
19	of	of	ADP	_	20 which	case
20	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	23 asserted	obl
21	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 asserted	nsubj:pass
22	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	23 asserted	aux:pass
23	asserted	assert	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	18 bag	acl:relcl
24	that	that	SCONJ	_	27 weighs	mark
25	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 weighs	nsubj
26	«	«	PUNCT	_	27 weighs	punct
27	weighs	weigh	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	23 asserted	advcl
28	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	29 ton	det
29	ton	ton	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 weighs	obj
30	»	»	PUNCT	_	27 weighs	punct
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	11 ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	give	participle				vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	is	present	a ton		give thousand kilograms	tree rules
3	ascertain	present		the probable mass of a school bag		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mass=Topic
4	assert	present · passive		ton	of a school bag	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
5	weigh in a quote	present	ton	a ton		vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme ton=Value

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 · ✓ the right answer

Several kilograms

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 kilograms	amod
2	kilograms	kilogram	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

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

Option 2

The mass of a motor-car

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 mass	det
2	mass	mass	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 car	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 car	det
5	motor	motor	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 car	compound
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 motor	punct
7	car	car	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 mass	nmod

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

Option 3

No mass whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 mass	det
2	mass	mass	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 mass	advmod

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

Option 4

One thousand kilograms precisely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	One	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 thousand	compound
2	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 kilograms	nummod
3	kilograms	kilogram	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	precisely	precisely	ADV	_	3 kilograms	advmod

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/language/44-starving-a-million-times-and-a-ton-everyday-hyperbole/e3/