Mandarin compared with English

Tests: 2 of 10 right · Exam: 0 of 4 right · Kind: ★ · Understood: 5 of 14 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 34 of the language 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 ✗

Your mate goes "tones are just a Chinese accent, innit, doesn't change nothin'." What's true?

1. Tones only matter in songs — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. He's right, tones are just a kind of accent — no support
3. Tones only show if you're angry — no support
4. Tones change which word you're saying — ✓ 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 2 · ★ · right ✓

What would happen if you said "mà" (scold) when you meant "mā" (mother)?

1. Nothing, people wouldn't notice — no support
2. It would mean "father" — score 3
3. It would mean "horse" — score 3
4. You'd say a different word — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 4

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 4 with score 4, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 17, line 4: «Slang is often silly taken word by word: "the bee's knees" (1920s, excellent), "don't have a cow" (calm down), "skibidi" (often just a fun nonsense word); you…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «read» (+2); the same thing acted on «whole phrase» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · ★ · wrong ✗

Your Gen Alpha cousin says "Chinese has no past tense so they can't talk about yesterday, that's crazy, no cap." ("No cap" means honestly.) What's true?

1. They only talk about tomorrow — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. They show time with words like "yesterday" and particles like "了" — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. He's right, Mandarin speakers can't talk about anything that happened in the past — no support
4. They use "-ed" like English — 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 ✗

A cartoon shows a kid learning "the Chinese alphabet A to Z". What's wrong?

1. Chinese has only 4 letters — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It should be Z to A — no support
3. Chinese uses characters, not an A to Z alphabet — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Nothing, Chinese has 26 letters, the same as English — 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 5 · ★ · wrong ✗

Your mum, a big gamer back in the day, says "be gung ho, charge in!" What does she mean in English today?

1. Be very eager, maybe too eager — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. Go home now — no support
3. Work in total silence — ← Mova's choice · score 7
4. Be very careful and slow — no support

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 3 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 34, line 12: «"Gung ho" came into English in the 1940s from a Chinese slogan, "gōnghé", understood as "work together"; in English it now means very, sometimes too, eager.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «mean» (+4); the same circumstance (+3). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 6 · ★ · wrong ✗

Your uncle from Singapore says "this market very crowded lah, people mountain people sea." ("Lah" is a little word at the end of a sentence in Singapore English.) What does he mean?

1. It's selling fish — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It's by the mountains and sea — no support
3. It's empty — no support
4. It's very crowded — ✓ 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 7 · ★ · wrong ✗

Your mate thinks "all Chinese people speak the same language." What's true?

1. He's right, there's only one language in China, spoken the same way everywhere — no support
2. China has many languages; Mandarin is the most widely spoken — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Everyone in China speaks English — ← Mova's choice · score 5
4. Cantonese is the same as Mandarin — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 19, line 1: «English is spoken all over the world, and every place has grown its own accent and words: a fizzy drink is "pop" in much of the American Midwest, "soda" in the…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «speak» (+3); the same thing acted on «english» (+2). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 8 · ★ · right ✓

Oscar wants to ask "you good?" in Mandarin. What does he say?

1. 你好吗? (nǐ hǎo ma?) — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. 两本书 (liǎng běn shū) — no support
3. 人山人海 (rén shān rén hǎi) — no support
4. 好久不见 (hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn) — 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 ✗

Your sis says "English has nothing like measure words, they're weird." What's fair?

1. She's right, English has nothing at all like them, they're only Chinese — score 1
2. English uses tones instead — score 1
3. English has a measure word for every noun — ← Mova's choice · score 6
4. English has some, like "a piece of paper" and "a loaf of bread" — ✓ the right answer · score 4

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 6, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 34, line 3: «Mandarin verbs never change for past or present, nouns usually don't change for plural, and questions often just add a little "ma" at the end; the work is done…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same circumstance (+4); the same doer «small extra words» (+2). The right option, 4, scored 4. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · ★ · wrong ✗

Your dad says "long time no see is definitely Chinese, end of." What should you say?

1. He's right, it's proven — ← Mova's choice · score 1
2. It's definitely from Australia — no support
3. It might be, but experts still argue about it — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. It's definitely from a TV show — no support

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 1, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 34, line 15: «Some say "long time no see" is a word-for-word copy of Chinese "好久不见"; others link it to a different source, and the origin is still argued about.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+3); the same thing acted on «see» (+2). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-2); a different doer (counts against) (-2). The right option, 3, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises Mandarin as a tonal language?

1. Tones are employed solely in song — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Tones are a regional accent of no grammatical consequence — no support
3. The pitch pattern of a syllable distinguishes one word from another — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. The pitch of the voice conveys only the emotion of the speaker and never alters meaning — 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 ✗

Identify the means by which Mandarin indicates that an action is completed.

1. The suffix "-ed" appended to the verb — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. A change in the tone of the noun — no support
3. The omission of the verb — no support
4. Particles such as "了" and words denoting time — ✓ 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 3 · formal language · wrong ✗

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the origin of the English expression "long time no see".

1. It was coined in the year 2000 — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It is proven beyond all doubt to derive solely from a Chinese greeting of the same form — no support
3. It is proven to derive from Latin — no support
4. Its origin is disputed, a Chinese source being one proposal among others — ✓ 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 4 · formal language · wrong ✗

Ascertain the function of the particle "吗" (ma) at the end of a Mandarin sentence.

1. It marks the plural of nouns denoting persons and animals — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It denotes the past tense — no support
3. It denotes the feminine gender — no support
4. It converts a statement into a yes/no question — ✓ 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

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