Exam question 3 · Sounds wrong, but is right

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning a group of thirty persons and the sharing of a birthday.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, established facts · What happens: select, be, establish, concern · To what, where: response, group

This is exam question 3 of lesson 182 «Sounds wrong, but is right» 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	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 group	det
13	group	group	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 persons	case
15	thirty	thirty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	16 persons	nummod
16	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 group	nmod
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 sharing	cc
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 sharing	det
19	sharing	sharing	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 persons	conj
20	of	of	ADP	_	22 birthday	case
21	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 birthday	det
22	birthday	birthday	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 sharing	nmod
23	.	.	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	a group of thirty persons and the sharing of a birthday		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus group=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

The probability is precisely one in three hundred and sixty-five

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 probability	det
2	probability	probability	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 one	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 one	cop
4	precisely	precisely	ADV	_	5 one	advmod
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 hundred	case
7	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 hundred	compound
8	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 one	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 five	cc
10	sixty	sixty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 five	compound
11	-	-	PUNCT	_	10 sixty	punct
12	five	five	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 one	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the probability	one		three hundred		precisely property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It is more probable than not that at least two persons share a birthday

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	4 probable	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 probable	cop
3	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 probable	advmod
4	probable	probable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	than	than	SCONJ	_	12 share	mark
6	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 share	advmod
7	that	that	SCONJ	_	12 share	mark
8	at	at	ADP	_	9 least	case
9	least	least	ADJ	Degree=Sup	10 two	nmod
10	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 persons	nummod
11	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 share	nsubj
12	share	share	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 probable	advcl
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 birthday	det
14	birthday	birthday	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 share	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					probable property	tree rules
2	not share	present	two persons	a birthday					tree rules

Option 3

At least one hundred and eighty persons would be required

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	At	at	ADP	_	2 least	case
2	least	least	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 one	nmod
3	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 hundred	compound
4	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 persons	nummod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 eighty	cc
6	eighty	eighty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 hundred	conj
7	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 required	nsubj:pass
8	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 required	aux
9	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 required	aux:pass
10	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	would · passive		hundred persons					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Precondition

Option 4

It is impossible for any two persons to share a birthday

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	3 impossible	expl
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 impossible	cop
3	impossible	impossible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	for	for	SCONJ	_	9 share	mark
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 persons	det
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 persons	nummod
7	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 share	nsubj
8	to	to	PART	_	9 share	mark
9	share	share	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 impossible	csubj
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 birthday	det
11	birthday	birthday	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 share	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						impossible property	tree rules
2	share	to-infinitive	any two persons	a birthday					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/182-sounds-wrong-but-is-right/e3/