Exam question 3 · Quarter past, quarter to, and how people really say the time

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning the German expression "halb drei".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, established facts · What happens: select, be, establish, concern · To what, where: response, German expression

This is exam question 3 of lesson 102 «Quarter past, quarter to, and how people really say the time» of the world 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 consistent	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 consistent	cop
6	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	acl:relcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 facts	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 facts	det
9	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 facts	amod
10	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 consistent	obl
11	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 facts	acl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 expression	det
13	German	German	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 expression	amod
14	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obj
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 drei	punct
16	halb	halb	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 drei	compound
17	drei	drei	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 expression	appos
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 drei	punct
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	is	present	the response		with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
3	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
4	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the German expression		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus expression=Experiencer

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

It denotes three o'clock precisely

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	2 denotes	nsubj
2	denotes	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 o'clock	nummod
4	o'clock	o'clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 denotes	obj
5	precisely	precisely	ADV	_	2 denotes	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	present	It	three o'clock				precisely property	vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot o'clock=Topic

Option 2

It denotes half past three

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	2 denotes	nsubj
2	denotes	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	half	half	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Frac	2 denotes	advmod
4	past	past	ADP	_	5 three	case
5	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 denotes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	present	It					past three; half property	vn indicate-78 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It denotes half past two

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	2 denotes	nsubj
2	denotes	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	half	half	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Frac	2 denotes	advmod
4	past	past	ADP	_	5 two	case
5	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 denotes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	present	It					past two; half property	vn indicate-78 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot

Option 4

It denotes a quarter past three

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	2 denotes	nsubj
2	denotes	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 past	det
4	quarter	quarter	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 past	compound
5	past	past	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 denotes	obj
6	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 past	flat

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	present	It	a quarter past					vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot past=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/world/102-quarter-past-quarter-to-saying-the-time/e3/