Olympiad: riddles, lipograms and hidden words
Tests: 5 of 11 right · Exam: 0 of 4 right · Kind: ★★★ · Understood: 6 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72
Lesson 57 of the english 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 · ★★★ · right ✓
Your mate: "Nothing's spelled wrong in a dictionary, innit, so the answer's 'nothing'." What is the trick?
- 1. Dictionaries are really full of mistakes — no support
- 2. The riddle simply has no answer at all — no support
- 3. The word "wrong" is spelled W-R-O-N-G — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 9
- 4. The answer is the word "dictionary" — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 9, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 57, line 5: «Picture Gran in Cork asking, "What word is spelled wrong in every dictionary, ya eejit?" ("eejit" means idiot, said fondly): the answer is "wrong", because the…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «spell» (+5); the same thing acted on «word» (+4). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 2 · ★★★ · wrong ✗
Which animal is hidden across two words in "I saw a crab bit Tom"?
- 1. bat — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. cat — no support
- 3. crab — no support
- 4. rabbit — ✓ 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 · ★★★ · right ✓
Which fruit is hidden in "The cap pleased Gran"?
- 1. apple — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. grape — no support
- 3. lemon — no support
- 4. pea — 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 ✗
What would happen if you added "er" to "short"?
- 1. It would turn into a palindrome — score 2
- 2. It would make a word with fewer letters — ← Mova's choice · score 4
- 3. It would stop being a real word — no support
- 4. It would make "shorter", a longer word — ✓ the right answer · no support
Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 2 with score 4, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 57, line 2: «Some riddles hide in the spelling: "ton" backwards is "not", and "short" becomes "shorter" when you add two letters, even though "shorter" is a longer word.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «longer word» (+3); the same circumstance (+2). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). The right option, 4, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 5 · ★★★ · right ✓
A cartoon says pear, pair, pare and peer all sound exactly the same. Fix it.
- 1. They really do all sound the same — score 4
- 2. "Pair" is the odd one out — no support
- 3. "Peer" has a different vowel sound — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7
- 4. "Pear" is the odd one out — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 7, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 57, line 12: «Pear, pair and pare sound the same (they are homophones, words that sound alike but differ in spelling and meaning); peer has a different vowel sound.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «different vowel sound» (+4); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+2); the same doer «peer» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 6 · ★★★ · wrong ✗
Tyler, rough: "Riddles are stupid, a piano's got no keys, it's got buttons, you muppet." ("Muppet" means fool.) Who is right?
- 1. Nobody, since pianos have locks and keys — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Both, since keys and buttons are one thing — no support
- 3. The riddle: a piano's keys really are keys — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. Tyler: piano keys are really buttons — 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 7 · ★★★ · right ✓
Dylan, Gen Alpha: "I'm fasting till lunch, no cap, I'm starving." ("No cap" means no lie.) What does "fasting" mean here?
- 1. Not eating — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Sleeping in — no support
- 3. Running quickly — no support
- 4. Hurrying up — 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 ✗
Which word, written backwards, makes another real word?
- 1. heavy — ← Mova's choice · score 9
- 2. pear — score 6
- 3. ton — ✓ the right answer · score 6
- 4. piano — score 6
Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 9, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 10, line 9: «Many ei words make the /ay/ sound: eight, weigh, neighbour; the rhyme does not cover them.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «make» (+5); the same thing acted on «ay sound» (+4). The right option, 3, scored 6. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 9 · ★★★ · wrong ✗
Which sentence leaves out the letter "a"?
- 1. A big dog slept in the sun. — no support
- 2. The big dog slept in the sun. — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. The big cat slept in the sun. — ← Mova's choice · score 5
- 4. The dog sat in the sun. — no support
Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 3 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 56, line 3: «A palindrome reads the same forwards and backwards (level, noon, Nan), and so can a whole sentence if you ignore spaces, capitals and punctuation: "Was it a ca…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «car» (+2); it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same doer «sentence» (+1). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 10 · ★★★ · wrong ✗
A man shows a photo: "Brothers and sisters I have none, but this man's father is my father's son." His friend says, "So it's you!" Why is the friend wrong?
- 1. It is his father, so the friend is half right — ← Mova's choice · score 4
- 2. The friend is right; the photo shows the man — score 4
- 3. Then the photo man's father would be his dad, not him — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. The man has a brother, so it is his brother — no support
Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 1 with score 4, tied with another option at 4 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 52, line 3: «Little words change everything: "Circle the word that is NOT a noun" asks the opposite of "Circle the noun", so read the whole question.», reached through the cause of the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «word» (+4). The right option, 3, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 11 · ★★★ · right ✓
Which phrase hides the name of a country across two words?
- 1. Mr Chin and his dog — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Mr Lee and his cat — no support
- 3. Mr Brown and his fox — no support
- 4. Mr King and his hen — 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 ✗
Identify the term denoting a composition from which a particular letter has been deliberately excluded.
- 1. A palindrome — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. A pangram — no support
- 3. An acrostic — no support
- 4. A lipogram — ✓ 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 2 · formal language · wrong ✗
Ascertain the object that "has keys but cannot open locks" in the well-known riddle.
- 1. A padlock — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. A piano — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. A car — no support
- 4. A door — 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 ✗
Select the word which, among "pear", "pair", "pare" and "peer", is not pronounced in the same manner as the others.
- 1. Pair — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Pear — no support
- 3. Peer — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. Pare — 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 ✗
It is given that a speaker has no siblings and states that "this man's father is my father's son". Determine the identity of the man depicted.
- 1. The speaker himself — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. The speaker's father — no support
- 3. The speaker's son — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. The speaker's brother — 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/english/57-olympiad-riddles-lipograms-and-hidden-words/