--- title: Olympiad: tricky comprehension — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Olympiad: tricky comprehension», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Tricky comprehension questions test whether you read exactly what the text says, not what you expect it to say. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Olympiad: tricky comprehension # Olympiad: tricky comprehension Lesson 60 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/0/) — Tricky comprehension questions test whether you read exactly what the text says, not what you expect it to say. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/1/) — Watch the little words: "not untrue" means true, so "It is not untrue that Sam did not go" means Sam did not go; and "but" can join two facts that both still count. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/2/) — Some words point back to something earlier, and you must work out which: in "The trophy didn't fit in the suitcase because it was too big", "it" is the trophy, but with "too small", "it" is the suitcase. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/3/) — People do not always mean what they say: Dad's "Oh, brilliant, another rainy sports day" is sarcasm, and Tom saying he didn't eat the biscuits while brushing off crumbs is a clue that he is fibbing. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/4/) — Use only what the text gives you: if it says Lily rides her bike on Mondays, you cannot claim she rides it every day, and if the text does not explain why something happened, "the text does not say" can be the right answer. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/5/) — In "Amy is taller than Ben. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/6/) — Ben is taller than Cal, but Cal is taller than Dee", the order from tallest is Amy, Ben, Cal, Dee, so Dee is the shortest. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/7/) — "Not untrue" is a double negative meaning "true". - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/8/) — In "The trophy didn't fit in the suitcase because it was too big", "it" means the trophy; with "too small", "it" means the suitcase. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/9/) — Sarcasm says the opposite of what is meant, often in a flat or annoyed voice: "Oh, brilliant" about rain means fed up. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/10/) — Clues in a text, like crumbs on a jumper, can show that a character is not telling the truth. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/11/) — "The old man the boat" is a real sentence: "the old" means old people, and "man" is a verb meaning to work or crew the boat. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/12/) — In "Before Mia ate breakfast, she fed the cat", feeding the cat comes first, even though breakfast is mentioned first. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/13/) — A "so" links a cause to its result: Ravi left his books at school, so he could not do his homework at home. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/14/) — A question asking what is NOT stated wants the option the text never says, such as "every day" when the text only says "on Mondays". - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/15/) — "Dogs must be carried on the escalator" means that if you have a dog with you, you must carry it; it does not mean everyone must carry a dog. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/16/) — When a text does not give a reason, a good reader can say what is possible but does not claim it is certain. - ← previous: [Olympiad: real languages and codes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/59-olympiad-real-languages-and-codes/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)