Exam question 4 · Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole

Pursuant to a statement that fifteen sums «will take a thousand years», and given that each sum requires two minutes, determine the duration reasonably to be expected.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: that, sum · What happens: sum, take, give, require, determine, expect · To what, where: duration · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 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	Pursuant	pursuant	ADV	_	4 statement	advmod
2	to	to	ADP	_	4 statement	case
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 statement	det
4	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 sums	nsubj
6	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 sums	nummod
7	sums	sum	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 statement	conj
8	«	«	PUNCT	_	10 take	punct
9	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 take	aux
10	take	take	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	7 sums	appos
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 thousand	det
12	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 years	nummod
13	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 take	obj
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	10 take	punct
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 given	punct
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 given	cc
17	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 take	parataxis
18	that	that	SCONJ	_	21 requires	mark
19	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	20 sum	det
20	sum	sum	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 requires	nsubj
21	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 given	advcl
22	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	23 minutes	nummod
23	minutes	minute	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 requires	obj
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 determine	punct
25	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	10 take	conj
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	27 duration	det
27	duration	duration	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 determine	obj
28	reasonably	reasonably	ADV	_	31 expected	advmod
29	to	to	PART	_	31 expected	mark
30	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	31 expected	aux:pass
31	expected	expect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	25 determine	advcl
32	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 statement	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	sum		that				tree rules
2	take in a quote	future			year		vn require-103 «NP V that S»: agent=Theme clause=Precondition
3	give	participle					vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
4	require	present	each sum		minute		vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Theme
5	determine	infinitive		the duration			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent duration=Topic
6	expect	to-infinitive · passive				reasonably property	vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»

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

Approximately fifteen hours

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Approximately	approximately	ADV	_	2 fifteen	advmod
2	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 hours	nummod
3	hours	hour	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

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

Option 2

Approximately one thousand years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Approximately	approximately	ADV	_	3 thousand	advmod
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 thousand	compound
3	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 years	nummod
4	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Approximately thirty minutes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Approximately	approximately	ADV	_	2 thirty	advmod
2	thirty	thirty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 minutes	nummod
3	minutes	minute	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

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

Option 4

Approximately two minutes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Approximately	approximately	ADV	_	3 minutes	advmod
2	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 minutes	nummod
3	minutes	minute	NOUN	Number=Plur	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/language/44-starving-a-million-times-and-a-ton-everyday-hyperbole/e4/