Test 10 · ★★★ · Why time flies and why it drags
Oscar's brother: "50 years an hour, that's a year a minute, sound." Is "a year a minute" exactly right?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: that · What happens: be · To what, where: year, year minute
This is test 10 · ★★★ of lesson 110 «Why time flies and why it drags» of the world 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: Oscar's brother: "50 years an hour, that's a year a minute, sound."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oscar | Oscar | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 brother | nmod:poss |
| 2 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 1 Oscar | case |
| 3 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 7 years | punct |
| 5 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 years | punct |
| 6 | 50 | 50 | NUM | NumForm=Digit NumType=Card | 7 years | nummod |
| 7 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 brother | appos |
| 8 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 hour | det |
| 9 | hour | hour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 years | nmod:unmarked |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 year | punct |
| 11 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 14 year | nsubj |
| 12 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 14 year | cop |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 year | det |
| 14 | year | year | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 brother | conj |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 minute | det |
| 16 | minute | minute | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 year | obl:unmarked |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 sound | punct |
| 18 | sound | sound | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 brother | conj |
| 19 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 brother | punct |
| 20 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 brother | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a in a quote | present | that | a year | minute | 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.
Sentence 2: Is "a year a minute" exactly right?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 minute | cop |
| 2 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 minute | punct |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 year | det |
| 4 | year | year | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 minute | compound |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 minute | det |
| 6 | minute | minute | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 7 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 minute | punct |
| 8 | exactly | exactly | ADV | _ | 9 right | advmod |
| 9 | right | right | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 minute | amod |
| 10 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 6 minute | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a in a quote | present | a year minute | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
No, it's 50 years a minute
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 6 years | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 No | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 years | nsubj |
| 4 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 years | cop |
| 5 | 50 | 50 | NUM | NumForm=Digit NumType=Card | 6 years | nummod |
| 6 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 minute | det |
| 8 | minute | minute | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 years | nmod:unmarked |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | it | 50 years | minute | tree rules |
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
Not quite; it's a bit less than a year a minute
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 8 less | advmod |
| 2 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 8 less | advmod |
| 3 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 8 less | punct |
| 4 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 less | nsubj |
| 5 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 less | cop |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 bit | det |
| 7 | bit | bit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 less | obl:unmarked |
| 8 | less | less | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 13 minute | advmod |
| 9 | than | than | ADP | _ | 11 year | case |
| 10 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 11 year | det |
| 11 | year | year | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 less | obl |
| 12 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 13 minute | det |
| 13 | minute | minute | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not is | present | it | year | a bit obl:unmarked; less property | tree rules |
Option 3
Yes, exactly one year a minute
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 7 minute | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | exactly | exactly | ADV | _ | 4 one | advmod |
| 4 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 5 year | nummod |
| 5 | year | year | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 minute | compound |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 minute | det |
| 7 | minute | minute | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
No, it's about one year every hour, not every minute
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 7 year | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 No | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 year | nsubj |
| 4 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 year | cop |
| 5 | about | about | ADV | _ | 6 one | advmod |
| 6 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 7 year | nummod |
| 7 | year | year | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 8 | every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 9 hour | det |
| 9 | hour | hour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 year | obl:unmarked |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 minute | punct |
| 11 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 13 minute | advmod |
| 12 | every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 13 minute | det |
| 13 | minute | minute | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 year | parataxis |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | it | one year | hour | tree rules |
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/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/t10/