---
title: Which sentence leaves out the letter "a"? — Olympiad: riddles, lipograms and hidde… · tree and pragmatics
description: Which sentence leaves out the letter "a"? Test 9 · ★★★ of lesson 57 «Olympiad: riddles, lipograms and hidden words» of the English course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Test 9 · ★★★ · Olympiad: riddles, lipograms and hidden words

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Which sentence leaves out the letter "a"?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** sentence · **What happens:** leave out · **To what, where:** letter

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This is test 9 · ★★★ of lesson 57 «Olympiad: riddles, lipograms and hidden words» of the English course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: [the test at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/57-olympiad-riddles-lipograms-and-hidden-words/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:57-olympiad-riddles-lipograms-and-hidden-words:t9:1
# text = Which sentence leaves out the letter "a"?
1	Which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	sentence	sentence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	leaves	leave	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	out	out	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave out** | present | which sentence | the letter |  |  |  |  | vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A big dog slept in the sun.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:57-olympiad-riddles-lipograms-and-hidden-words:t9:o1:1
# text = A big dog slept in the sun.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sun.	sun.	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sleep** | past | a big dog |  |  | the sun. |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in sun.=Location |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The big dog slept in the sun.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:57-olympiad-riddles-lipograms-and-hidden-words:t9:o2:1
# text = The big dog slept in the sun.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sun.	sun.	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sleep** | past | the big dog |  |  | the sun. |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in sun.=Location |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The big cat slept in the sun.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:57-olympiad-riddles-lipograms-and-hidden-words:t9:o3:1
# text = The big cat slept in the sun.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	slept	sleep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sun.	sun.	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sleep** | participle |  | the big cat *not said here* |  | the sun. |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in sun.=Location |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The dog sat in the sun.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:57-olympiad-riddles-lipograms-and-hidden-words:t9:o4:1
# text = The dog sat in the sun.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sun.	sun.	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | the dog |  |  | the sun. |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in sun.=Location |

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**Text:** the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (`world/data/school/`), as the course runner gave them to the student. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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- ← previous: [Olympiad: riddles, lipograms and hidde…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/57-olympiad-riddles-lipograms-and-hidden-words/t8/)
- next →: [Olympiad: riddles, lipograms and hidde…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/57-olympiad-riddles-lipograms-and-hidden-words/t10/)
- ↑ back to [Olympiad: riddles, lipograms and hidden words](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/57-olympiad-riddles-lipograms-and-hidden-words/)