How our calendar was made: Romans, Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory

Tests: 4 of 12 right · Exam: 3 of 4 right · Kind: ★ · Understood: 10 of 16 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 116 of the world 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 ✓

Ollie goes, "sept means 7 innit, so September's month 7, end of." His sister: "It's month 9, ya plonker." (A plonker is a silly person.) What's the full story?

1. Ollie's right, September is still the 7th month of the year — score 3
2. The French moved September two months later on purpose, after their revolution — no support
3. His sister's right, and "sept" has never meant 7 — score -2
4. It's month 9 now, but it was month 7 when the Roman year began in March — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 7, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 116, line 6: «The oldest Roman calendar began the year in March, so September, October, November and December were months 7, 8, 9 and 10.», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same action «begin» (+4); the same place «march» (+2); a different doer (counts against) (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · ★ · wrong ✗

Mia: "Two Roman blokes got their own months? Lowkey swag." ("Lowkey" means a bit; "swag" means cool.) Which two?

1. Caesar got March and Augustus got the month of May — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Romulus got July and his brother Remus got August — no support
3. Julius Caesar got July and Augustus got August — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Augustus got June and Caesar got the month of July — 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 ✗

Zara: "445 days in one year? Bloody hell, imagine the homework." Why was 46 BC so long?

1. Priests wanted a longer school year for children — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The Romans counted two winters that year by mistake — no support
3. Caesar added days to catch up with the seasons before his new calendar — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. The Earth went round the Sun more slowly that year — 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 4 · ★ · right ✓

What would happen if we had kept Caesar's calendar, unchanged, for another 1,300 years?

1. Nothing, because Caesar's year was exactly right — no support
2. Christmas would land right in the middle of a hot summer — no support
3. It would slip about 10 more days away from the seasons — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 4
4. It would slip by only about 10 minutes in all — score 4

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 3 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 116, line 4: «Caesar's year was about 11 minutes too long. Tiny, but after about 1,600 years the calendar had slipped 10 days, so in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII cut 10 dates out…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «slip» (+3); the same doer «calendar» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 5 · ★ · wrong ✗

Maya, from Cork: "Bed on Thursday the 4th, up on Friday the 15th? Yer man the Pope's an eejit, they lost ten days of their lives!" ("Yer man" means that fella; "eejit" means idiot.) What's true?

1. The weekdays jumped too, so Friday came twice that week — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Everyone got ten days older overnight, all at once — no support
3. Nobody lost any time; only the date numbers jumped — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. They really slept for ten whole days without waking up once — 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 · ★ · right ✓

Jack's dad: "In 1752 folk rioted, yelling 'give us our eleven days!' Fact." What would a careful historian say?

1. It's true, but it happened in Kyiv in 1918 — no support
2. It's true, and the king gave back five of the days — no support
3. It's true, and the angry riots won the eleven days back again — no support
4. The riots probably never happened; the story is likely a myth — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 4 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 116, line 15: «Historians think the famous riots of people shouting "give us our eleven days" probably never happened.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «happen» (+4); the same doer «famous riots» (+2); the same property (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 7 · ★ · wrong ✗

Taras's great-grandad's papers say "1 January 1910 O.S." Mum goes, "Sound, that's 14 January our way." ("Sound" means fine.) Is she right?

1. No, the gap between the calendars was always 10 days — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. No, "O.S." means the date is one whole year earlier — no support
3. Yes, by then the gap between the two calendars was 13 days — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Yes, because January had 14 extra days in the old calendar — 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 ✗

Abel's mate from the Valleys: "13 months? I'd be tamping, that's an extra month of school!" ("Tamping" is Welsh slang for furious.) What does the Ethiopian calendar really have?

1. 13 months of 28 days each, every single year — ← Mova's choice · score 5
2. 13 months of 30 days, making 390 days a year — score 3
3. 12 months of 30 days and a short 13th month of 5 or 6 days — ✓ the right answer · score 5
4. 12 months and a spare week added in summer — score 5

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 5, tied with another option at 5 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 116, line 2: «The oldest Roman calendar started the year in March, so September ("septem" is 7 in Latin) really was the 7th month. When January and February were moved to th…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «oldest roman calendar» (+2); it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same thing acted on «7th month» (+1). The right option, 3, scored 5. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 9 · ★ · wrong ✗

Leon: "So my great-great-whatever's birthday from 1500 is wrong now?" What's the best answer?

1. The day was real, but you must say which calendar the date is in — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. Yes, every date written before 1582 is fake — no support
3. Yes, everyone's birthday moved ten days later, so it's all wrong — ← Mova's choice · score 5
4. No, both calendars always gave the same date — 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 115, line 13: «A birthday moves round the days of the week, so it cannot fall on a Saturday every year.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «move» (+4); the same doer «birthday» (+1). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · ★ · wrong ✗

A cartoon says Pope Gregory invented leap years. Put it right.

1. Leap years were invented in 1752 by the British king — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Caesar's calendar already had them; Gregory changed the rule for century years — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Gregory got rid of leap years altogether — no support
4. Leap years were invented in Ukraine in 1918 — 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 ✓

Gran: "2000 wasn't a leap year, love, century years never are." Is she right?

1. No, 2000 was a leap year because it divides by 400 — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7
2. Yes, only years ending in 4 are leap years — score 6
3. Yes, no century year can ever be a leap year, not one — no support
4. No, every century year is a leap year — score 6

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 7, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 9, line 15: «Years ending in 00 are leap years only if they divide by 400, so 2000 was a leap year but 1900 was not.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: its «because» matches the remembered cause (+4); the same thing acted on «leap year» (+2); the same doer «2000» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 12 · ★ · wrong ✗

Ben's teacher calls the old Roman calendar "a right dog's dinner" (a big mess). Why didn't it fit the seasons?

1. The Romans had no words for summer and winter — no support
2. Priests added days when they felt like it, sometimes for politics — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. It had a leap day every 4 years with no exceptions — no support
4. It followed the Sun far too closely — ← Mova's choice · score 2

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 4 with score 2, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 9, line 3: «Our calendar follows the sky: a day is one turn of the Earth, a month comes from the Moon's phases, and a year is one trip of the Earth around the Sun.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «follow» (+1); the same thing acted on «sky» (+1). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 1 · formal language · right ✓

Identify the principal reason for which the month designated September bears a name signifying "seven".

1. September was originally the seventh month in the calendar of the French — score 4
2. The Roman year originally commenced in March, rendering September the seventh month — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
3. The month was dedicated to seven deities of the Roman state — no support
4. The name was assigned in error by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 5, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 115, line 17: «In a 30-day month that starts on a Thursday, the Fridays are the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th, so the last Friday is the 30th.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «start» (+4); the same doer «30-day month» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 2 · formal language · wrong ✗

Given that the Julian year exceeded the solar year by approximately eleven minutes, ascertain the approximate interval over which the error accumulated to one entire day.

1. Approximately one thousand six hundred years — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Approximately four years — no support
3. Approximately one hundred and thirty years — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Approximately eleven years — 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 ✓

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the reform promulgated in 1582.

1. Ten dates were omitted, and century years became leap years only if divisible by 400 — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
2. Eleven dates were omitted, and leap years were abolished entirely — no support
3. Ten dates were added, and every year became 366 days — no support
4. The year was thereafter commenced in the month of March — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 116, line 4: «Caesar's year was about 11 minutes too long. Tiny, but after about 1,600 years the calendar had slipped 10 days, so in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII cut 10 dates out…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «century year» (+3); the same thing acted on «leap year» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 4 · formal language · right ✓

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in Britain?

1. It has not yet occurred, Britain retaining the Julian calendar — no support
2. It occurred in 1752, whereupon 2 September was followed by 14 September — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 2
3. It occurred in 1918, whereupon thirteen dates were omitted — no support
4. It occurred in 1582, at which time 4 October was followed by 15 October — no support

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 2 with score 2, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 116, line 14: «Britain switched in 1752, when 2 September was followed by 14 September, skipping 11 dates.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «follow» (+1); the same thing acted on «2 september» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

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