Olympiad: tone detectives and number puzzles ★★★

Tests: 2 of 11 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: ★★★ · Understood: 5 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 31 of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school, as Mova's small model took its tests: it had read this lesson and the ones before it and learned from their exercises. Each test shows the options in the order the student saw them, its choice, the right answer, the score of every option and why it chose. The lesson itself, sentence by sentence with trees and pragmatics: the lesson in the corpora.

Every question of this lesson and each of its options parsed by Mova, with trees and pragmatics: the lesson's questions in the corpora.

Test 1 · ★★★ · wrong ✗

★★★ Ollie from Leeds goes «mate, 33 is just sānsān innit». What is right?

1. shísānsān: ten, three, three — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. sānshí: thirty, that's near enough — no support
3. sānshísān: three-tens, then three — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. sānsān: two threes side by side — no support

Why: Nothing it remembers matched the question, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · ★★★ · wrong ✗

★★★ Ming groans «I've told you a million times, there's like a million tones!» How many are there really?

1. Two: one up and one down — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. A million, just like he said — no support
3. Eight, like the lucky number — no support
4. Four, plus the light tone — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · ★★★ · wrong ✗

★★★ Isla from Glasgow says «aye, Sunday's xīngqīqī, day seven, ken». What is wrong?

1. Sunday is day zero: xīngqīlíng — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Sunday has no number: xīngqītiān — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Nothing at all, she's dead right — no support
4. Sunday is day one: xīngqīyī — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 4 · ★★★ · wrong ✗

★★★ It's xīngqīwǔ. Ming says «see you hòutiān at Chinese school», and school is on Saturday. Is he right?

1. No: hòutiān is Sunday, Saturday is míngtiān — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. No: hòutiān means yesterday — no support
3. Yes: hòutiān means Saturday — ← Mova's choice · score 3
4. Yes: hòutiān just means next week — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 3, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 22, line 7: «"xīngqīliù" means Saturday, "week-six"; "zhōuliù" is another way of saying it, and many children go to Chinese school on Saturday.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «mean» (+2); the same thing acted on «saturday» (+2). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 5 · ★★★ · right ✓

★★★ Tyler from Texas says «no cap, yí ge and yì tiān are typos for yī». What's really going on?

1. Southern kids just spell one differently — no support
2. They're typos, he's bang on — no support
3. yī changes its tone to suit the next syllable — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 8
4. They are two other words for one — score 5

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 3 with score 8, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 31, line 10: «yī changes too: yí before a falling tone (yí ge, yíxià), yì before the other tones (yì tiān, yìbǎi), and plain yī when counting or at the end of a number like…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+4); the same action «change» (+2); the same doer «yī» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 6 · ★★★ · wrong ✗

★★★ Zoe reckons bù hǎo should be bú hǎo, «same as bú shì, innit». Why not?

1. bú comes only before a falling tone, and hǎo dips — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. hǎo falls, so bù must stay low — ← Mova's choice · score 8
3. bù rises before every word, so she's right — no support
4. bù hǎo is rude, so it never changes — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 8, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 31, line 9: «Before a falling tone bù turns into rising bú (bú shì, bú yào, bú duì); before the other tones it stays bù (bù hǎo, bù xíng, bù chī).», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «stay» (+4); the same doer «bù» (+4). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 7 · ★★★ · wrong ✗

★★★ Kai from Auckland was born on 25 January 2017: «sweet as, I'm a Rooster, cos 2017». Chinese New Year 2017 was on 28 January. Which animal is he?

1. Goat, three years back — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Dog, the year after it — no support
3. Rooster, just as he says — no support
4. Monkey, the year before — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 8 · ★★★ · wrong ✗

★★★ Ming's granny says the dumplings took «yìbǎi nián» (a hundred years) to fold. How long did they take?

1. A hundred minutes, to the dot — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. A long time; it's an exaggeration — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Exactly one hundred years — no support
4. One year, she mixed up the words — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 9 · ★★★ · wrong ✗

★★★ Riya from Mumbai wants a bun and tells the stall «wǒ mài». What should she have said?

1. wǒ mǎi — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. wǒ ma, light and short — ← Mova's choice · score 3
3. wǒ mā, high and level — no support
4. wǒ mài, only louder — no support

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 2 with score 3, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 30, line 3: «Your friend says he got a hundred marks. You can gasp «zhēn de ma?» (really?) or «bù huì ba!» (no way!), and when he shows you the test, «lìhai!» or «tài niú l…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same thing acted on «zhēn ma» (+1). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · ★★★ · right ✓

★★★ Ella goes «8, 9 and 6 are lucky, so 4 is luckiest, it's the smallest!» Which is right?

1. Yes: the smallest number is always the luckiest — no support
2. No: sì sounds like sǐ, to die, so many avoid it — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
3. Yes: sì rhymes with fā, to get rich — no support
4. No: 4 is lucky only at New Year — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 6, line 8: «sì («sz!», falling) is four; it sounds like sǐ (to die), so 4 is unlucky for many families in phone numbers, houses and gifts of four.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «sound» (+2); the same doer «sì» (+2); the same circumstance (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 11 · ★★★ · wrong ✗

★★★ Lucy hears «èr yuè shí hào» and wishes Ming happy birthday on 2 October. When should she?

1. 12 February, nearly — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. 20 October, close — no support
3. 2 October, she's right — no support
4. 10 February — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗

Determine the Mandarin numeral equal to the sum of shíwǔ and èrshí.

1. sānshí — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. wǔshísān — no support
3. sānshíwǔ — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. èrshíwǔ — no support

Why: Nothing it remembers matched the question, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 2 · formal language · right ✓

Given that the present day is xīngqīsān, ascertain the day designated by hòutiān.

1. xīngqīwǔ — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. xīngqītiān — no support
3. xīngqīliù — no support
4. xīngqīsì — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗

Identify the expression in which the negative bù is pronounced with a rising tone.

1. bù + chī — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. bù + shì — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. bù + hǎo — no support
4. bù + xíng — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗

A year of the Horse commenced in 2026. State the zodiac animal of the year commencing in 2030.

1. Rooster — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Monkey — no support
3. Dog — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Horse — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/