Test 6 · Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole

«ugh the homework's gonna take a thousand years, might as well not start» What is the wise move?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: homework · What happens: take, not start, be · To what, where: take wise move

This is test 6 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	7 take	punct
2	ugh	ugh	INTJ	_	7 take	discourse
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 homework	det
4	homework	homework	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 take	nsubj
5	's	's	PART	_	4 homework	case
6	gonna	gonna	X	Foreign=Yes	7 take	dep
7	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	22 move	compound
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 thousand	det
9	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 years	nummod
10	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 take	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 start	punct
12	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 start	aux
13	as	as	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	16 start	cc
14	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	13 as	fixed
15	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 start	advmod
16	start	start	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 take	conj
17	»	»	PUNCT	_	7 take	punct
18	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	22 move	nsubj
19	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	22 move	cop
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 move	det
21	wise	wise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 move	amod
22	move	move	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	22 move	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	take in a quote	infinitive	the homework		year	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	not start in a quote	might	the homework not said here			vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
3	is a	present		the take wise move		tree rules

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

Agree, nobody can do a thousand years of work

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Agree	agree	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 do	punct
3	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 do	nsubj
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 do	aux
5	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Agree	conj
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 thousand	det
7	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 years	nummod
8	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 do	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 work	case
10	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 years	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	agree speech: agree	imperative	you not said here						vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	do	can	nobody				year		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Tell the teacher the homework is impossible

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tell	tell	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 teacher	det
3	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Tell	obj
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 homework	det
5	homework	homework	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 impossible	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 impossible	cop
7	impossible	impossible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Tell	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	imperative	you not said here		the teacher				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent teacher=Recipient
2	is	present	the homework					impossible property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Count the sums and start: it's about half an hour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Count	count	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sums	det
3	sums	sum	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Count	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 start	cc
5	start	start	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	1 Count	conj
6	:	:	PUNCT	_	12 hour	punct
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 hour	nsubj
8	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 hour	cop
9	about	about	ADV	_	10 half	advmod
10	half	half	DET	NumForm=Word NumType=Frac PronType=Ind	12 hour	det:predet
11	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 hour	det
12	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Count	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	count	imperative	you not said here	the sums	vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sum=Theme
2	start	infinitive	you not said here		vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
3	is a	present	it	half hour	tree rules

Option 4

Do one sum a year until they are finished

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Do	do	AUX	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	3 sum	aux
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 sum	nsubj
3	sum	sum	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 year	det
5	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sum	obj
6	until	until	SCONJ	_	9 finished	mark
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 finished	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 finished	aux:pass
9	finished	finish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 sum	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sum	infinitive · do-support	one				year		vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	finish	present · passive		they					vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality

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.

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