Exam question 3 · Which number counts? Hyperbole and real numbers in maths
A speaker states «a million people, well, thirty». Ascertain the number of persons present.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: speaker, you, persons · What happens: state, ascertain, present · To what, where: million people, number
This is exam question 3 of lesson 46 «Which number counts? Hyperbole and real numbers in maths» 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
Sentence 1: A speaker states «a million people, well, thirty».
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 speaker | det |
| 2 | speaker | speaker | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 states | nsubj |
| 3 | states | state | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | « | « | PUNCT | _ | 7 people | punct |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 million | det |
| 6 | million | million | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 7 people | nummod |
| 7 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 states | obj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 thirty | punct |
| 9 | well | well | INTJ | _ | 11 thirty | discourse |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 well | punct |
| 11 | thirty | thirty | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 7 people | appos |
| 12 | » | » | PUNCT | _ | 11 thirty | punct |
| 13 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 states | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | state speech: other | present | a speaker | million people | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent people=Topic |
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: Ascertain the number of persons present.
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 number | det |
| 3 | number | number | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Ascertain | obj |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 persons | case |
| 5 | persons | person | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 present | nsubj |
| 6 | present | present | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 number | acl:relcl |
| 7 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Ascertain | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ascertain | imperative | you not said here | the number | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent number=Topic | ||||
| 2 | present | present | persons | the number not said here | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent number=Theme |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
One million
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | One | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 million | compound |
| 2 | million | million | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
One million and thirty
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | One | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 million | compound |
| 2 | million | million | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | root | root |
| 3 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 4 thirty | cc |
| 4 | thirty | thirty | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 million | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
Thirty
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thirty | thirty | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
It cannot be ascertained
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 ascertained | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 ascertained | aux |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 5 ascertained | advmod |
| 4 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 5 ascertained | aux:pass |
| 5 | ascertained | ascertain | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not ascertain | can · passive | It | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
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/46-which-number-counts-hyperbole-and-real-numbers-in-maths/e3/