Exam question 4 · Quarter past, quarter to, and how people really say the time
Which of the following most accurately characterises the American expression "quarter of five"?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: American expression
This is exam question 4 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 | Which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 4 following | nsubj |
| 2 | of | of | ADP | _ | 4 following | case |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 following | det |
| 4 | following | follow | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 5 | most | most | ADV | Degree=Sup | 6 accurately | advmod |
| 6 | accurately | accurately | ADV | _ | 7 characterises | advmod |
| 7 | characterises | characteris | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 following | advcl |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 expression | det |
| 9 | American | American | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 expression | amod |
| 10 | expression | expression | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 characterises | obj |
| 11 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 quarter | punct |
| 12 | quarter | quarter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 expression | appos |
| 13 | of | of | ADP | _ | 14 five | case |
| 14 | five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 12 quarter | nmod |
| 15 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 quarter | punct |
| 16 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 following | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | follow | gerund | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 2 | characteris | present | the American expression | accurately property | 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
One quarter of five minutes
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | One | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 quarter | nummod |
| 2 | quarter | quarter | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 minutes | case |
| 4 | five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 5 minutes | nummod |
| 5 | minutes | minute | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 quarter | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
Five minutes after a quarter past the hour
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 minutes | nummod |
| 2 | minutes | minute | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 3 | after | after | ADP | _ | 5 quarter | case |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 quarter | det |
| 5 | quarter | quarter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 minutes | nmod |
| 6 | past | past | ADP | _ | 8 hour | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 hour | det |
| 8 | hour | hour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 quarter | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
Fifteen minutes before five o'clock
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fifteen | fifteen | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 minutes | nummod |
| 2 | minutes | minute | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 3 | before | before | ADP | _ | 5 o'clock | case |
| 4 | five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 5 o'clock | nummod |
| 5 | o'clock | o'clock | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 minutes | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Fifteen minutes after five o'clock
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fifteen | fifteen | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 minutes | nummod |
| 2 | minutes | minute | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 3 | after | after | ADP | _ | 5 o'clock | case |
| 4 | five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 5 o'clock | nummod |
| 5 | o'clock | o'clock | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 minutes | nmod |
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/world/102-quarter-past-quarter-to-saying-the-time/e4/