Test 4 · Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole
A cartoon shows Leo shrinking to a skeleton because he missed one snack. What is wrong with it?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: cartoon · What happens: show, shrink, miss, be · To what, where: Leo, one snack
This is test 4 of lesson 44 «Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole» of the language course of Mova's primary school. 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
Sentence 1: A cartoon shows Leo shrinking to a skeleton because he missed one snack.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 cartoon | det |
| 2 | cartoon | cartoon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 shows | nsubj |
| 3 | shows | show | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | Leo | Leo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 shows | iobj |
| 5 | shrinking | shrink | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 3 shows | advcl |
| 6 | to | to | ADP | _ | 8 skeleton | case |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 skeleton | det |
| 8 | skeleton | skeleton | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 shrinking | obl |
| 9 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 11 missed | mark |
| 10 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 missed | nsubj |
| 11 | missed | miss | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 shrinking | advcl |
| 12 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 13 snack | nummod |
| 13 | snack | snack | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 missed | obj |
| 14 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 shows | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | show | present | a cartoon | Leo | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent leo=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | shrink | gerund | a cartoon not said here | to a skeleton result | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent to skeleton=Result | ||||
| 3 | miss | past | cartoon | one snack | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer snack=Stimulus |
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.
Sentence 2: What is wrong with it?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 3 wrong | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 wrong | cop |
| 3 | wrong | wrong | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 4 | with | with | ADP | _ | 5 it | case |
| 5 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 wrong | obl |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 wrong | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | with skeleton; wrong property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
Nothing, because cartoons are always true
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | root | root |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 true | punct |
| 3 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 7 true | mark |
| 4 | cartoons | cartoon | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 true | nsubj |
| 5 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 true | cop |
| 6 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 7 true | advmod |
| 7 | true | true | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 1 Nothing | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | cartoons | always, true property | tree rules |
Option 2
Nothing, that is what starving after lunch means
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 5 what | nsubj |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Nothing | punct |
| 3 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 5 what | nsubj |
| 4 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 what | cop |
| 5 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | root | root |
| 6 | starving | starve | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 9 means | csubj |
| 7 | after | after | ADP | _ | 8 lunch | case |
| 8 | lunch | lunch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 starving | obl |
| 9 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 what | acl:relcl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | Nothing | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | starve | gerund | after lunch | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | mean | present | starving | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
Option 3
He should have grown into a mountain instead
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 grown | nsubj |
| 2 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 grown | aux |
| 3 | have | have | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 4 grown | aux |
| 4 | grown | grow | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 5 | into | into | ADP | _ | 7 mountain | case |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 mountain | det |
| 7 | mountain | mountain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 grown | obl |
| 8 | instead | instead | ADV | _ | 4 grown | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | grow | should · perfect | He | into a mountain result; instead property | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into mountain=Result |
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
Missing a snack makes you hungry, not a skeleton
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Missing | miss | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 makes | csubj |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 snack | det |
| 3 | snack | snack | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Missing | obj |
| 4 | makes | make | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 4 makes | obj |
| 6 | hungry | hungry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 makes | xcomp |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 skeleton | punct |
| 8 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 10 skeleton | advmod |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 skeleton | det |
| 10 | skeleton | skeleton | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 makes | parataxis |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | miss | gerund | a snack | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer snack=Stimulus | |||||
| 2 | make | present | Missing | you | hungry property | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset you=Product |
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/t4/