Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole
Tests: 5 of 12 right · Exam: 2 of 4 right · Kind: plain · Understood: 3 of 16 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72
Lesson 44 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 · right ✓
«bruh my mate says if u say literally it means its really true, so zoe actually flew??» What is right?
- 1. No, Zoe made up the whole race — no support
- 2. Yes, but only on sports day — no support
- 3. No, «literally» here just makes it stronger — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7
- 4. Yes, «literally» always means it really happened — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 4, line 18: «Literally first meant exactly, really happening; for hundreds of years writers, Charles Dickens among them, have also used it just to make things stronger, and…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «make» (+4); the same property (+3). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 2 · right ✓
«Mum's told me a million times, so it's a made-up number, so I can ignore her, right?»
- 1. Yes, mums only mean the things they can count — no support
- 2. No, she has really said it a million times — score 6
- 3. Yes, a made-up number means she doesn't mean any of it at all — no support
- 4. No, the number is made up but she really is cross — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 8
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 8, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 44, line 7: «In «I've told you a million times» the number is made up (maybe ten or twenty times), but the annoyance is real, so the towel goes on the hook.», reached through what was said in the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «make up» (+4); the same thing acted on «number» (+4). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 3 · wrong ✗
What would happen if Ava tried to lift a real ton?
- 1. She couldn't: a ton weighs as much as a small car — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. She could lift it easily, it's about five kilos — ← Mova's choice · score 2
- 3. She could lift it if Gran helped her a bit — score 2
- 4. It would feel lighter than her school bag — no support
Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 2 with score 2, tied with another option at 2 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 27, line 2: «Ava reads "The knight rode at night" and frowns: out loud the two words are twins, but on paper they wear different clothes, and the meaning tells you which on…», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «ava» (+4). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-2). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 4 · wrong ✗
A cartoon shows Leo shrinking to a skeleton because he missed one snack. What is wrong with it?
- 1. Nothing, because cartoons are always true — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Nothing, that is what starving after lunch means — no support
- 3. He should have grown into a mountain instead — no support
- 4. Missing a snack makes you hungry, not a skeleton — ✓ 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 5 · wrong ✗
«are we there yet it's been a bajillion hours» — «It's been forty minutes, mate.» Your little sister asks how long you've driven. What do you tell her?
- 1. A bajillion hours — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Forty minutes — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. Forever and ever — no support
- 4. Nobody can know — 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 6 · wrong ✗
«ugh the homework's gonna take a thousand years, might as well not start» What is the wise move?
- 1. Agree, nobody can do a thousand years of work — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Tell the teacher the homework is impossible — no support
- 3. Count the sums and start: it's about half an hour — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. Do one sum a year until they are finished — 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 ✓
Dad sits down slowly after mowing: «Oof, my back's killing me». What is a kind answer?
- 1. Offer him a cuppa and a sit-down — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Ring 999 for an ambulance — no support
- 3. Tell him to go and mow next door — no support
- 4. Say it's rude to talk about killing — 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 ✗
★★ Callum's «chuckin' it doon», Mason's «a thousand years, no cap» and Kofi's «a gazillion texts»: what do all three have in common?
- 1. Each is a lie told to get someone into trouble — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Each is a real measurement that you can trust and write down — no support
- 3. Each is a Scottish word that you must learn — no support
- 4. Each makes something sound bigger to show a feeling — ✓ 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 9 · wrong ✗
«Mum said there's a mountain in my room, I said it's only knee-high actually and she got madder lol why»
- 1. Ruby measured the wrong pile of clothes — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. She meant «tidy it», so arguing about the size missed the point — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. Knee-high is taller than most mountains, so she was right — no support
- 4. She really believed there was a mountain in the room — 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 10 · wrong ✗
★★★ Leo had lunch at 12:00 and at 3:30 shouts «I haven't eaten in like a hundred years». How long has it really been since he ate?
- 1. Four and a half hours — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Two and a half hours — no support
- 3. A hundred years, just as he says — no support
- 4. Three and a half hours — ✓ 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 11 · right ✓
★★★ Kofi says «my nan sent me a gazillion texts lol». She sent 3 in the morning, 4 at lunch and twice as many as at lunch in the afternoon. How many texts in all?
- 1. 15 — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. 14 — no support
- 3. A gazillion — no support
- 4. 11 — 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 12 · right ✓
★★★ Mum says the bag «weighs a ton», Ava says «it's like a hundred bricks», and the bathroom scales say 5 kg. What does the bag really weigh?
- 1. 5 kg — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. 100 bricks — no support
- 3. More than Mum — no support
- 4. 1000 kg — 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 figure of speech employed when a child, having eaten luncheon three and a half hours previously, declares that he is «starving».
- 1. A literal statement of a condition requiring medical attention — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Hyperbole, a deliberate exaggeration expressing a strong feeling — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. Understatement, a deliberate diminution of the facts — no support
- 4. A precise report of the hours elapsed since his meal — 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 · right ✓
It is stated by a parent that an instruction has been given «a million times». Select the response consistent with the established facts.
- 1. The number is not to be counted, though the displeasure is genuine — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. The parent is engaged in an exercise of arithmetic — no support
- 3. The instruction has in fact been issued on one million occasions — no support
- 4. The statement is false and may accordingly be disregarded — 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 · right ✓
Given that a ton is approximately one thousand kilograms, ascertain the probable mass of a school bag of which it is asserted that it «weighs a ton».
- 1. Several kilograms — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. The mass of a motor-car — no support
- 3. No mass whatsoever — no support
- 4. One thousand kilograms precisely — 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 ✗
Pursuant to a statement that fifteen sums «will take a thousand years», and given that each sum requires two minutes, determine the duration reasonably to be expected.
- 1. Approximately fifteen hours — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Approximately one thousand years — no support
- 3. Approximately thirty minutes — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. Approximately two minutes — 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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