Naclo 2015 Round 1
Naclo 2015 Round 1
Naclo 2015 Round 1
Annual
North American
Computational
Linguistics
Olympiad
2015
www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu
Open Round
January 29, 2015
Rules
1. The contest is three hours long and includes eight problems, labeled A to H.
2. Follow the facilitators' instructions carefully.
3. If you want clarification on any of the problems, talk to a facilitator. The facilitator
will consult with the jury before answering.
4. You may not discuss the problems with anyone except as described in items 3 & 12.
5. Each problem is worth a specified number of points, with a total of 100 points.
In this years open round, no points will be given for explanations. Instead, make
sure to fill out all the answer boxes properly.
6. All your answers should be in the Answer Sheets at the end of this booklet. ONLY
THE ANSWER SHEETS WILL BE GRADED.
7. Write your name and registration number on each page:
Here is an example:
Jessica Sawyer
#850
8. The top 100 participants (approximately) across the continent in the open round will
be invited to the second round.
9. Each problem has been thoroughly checked by linguists and computer scientists as
well as students like you for clarity, accuracy, and solvability. Some problems are
more difficult than others, but all can be solved using ordinary reasoning and some
basic analytic skills. You dont need to know anything about linguistics or about these languages in order to solve them.
10. If we have done our job well, very few people will solve all these problems completely in the time allotted. So, dont be discouraged if you dont finish everything.
11. If you have any comments, suggestions or complaints about the competition, we
ask you to remember these for the web-based evaluation. We will send you an email shortly after the competition is finished with instructions on how to fill it out.
12. DO NOT DISCUSS THE PROBLEMS UNTIL THEY HAVE BEEN POSTED
ONLINE! THIS MAY BE SEVERAL WEEKS AFTER THE END OF THE CONTEST.
Oh, and have fun!
NACLO 2015
Sites
As well as more than 90 high schools throughout the USA and Canada
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(A) The Big Dog and the Young Man (1/1) [5 points]
Danish, spoken in Denmark, and Swedish, spoken in Sweden, are closely related languages. This means that
they have many similarities.
The English words the and a are called articles. The is called a definite article and a is called an indefinite article.
Read the Danish and Swedish phrases below, and look for patterns, similarities and differences. In particular,
look at how articles are used. Then complete the exercise below; write your answers in the Answer Sheets.
Danish
Swedish
en hund
a dog
en hund
a dog
en stor hund
a big dog
en stor hund
a big dog
hunden
the dog
hunden
the dog
A1. Which of these phrases are Danish and which are Swedish? Write a D for Danish or as S for Swedish
in the Answer Sheets.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
en mand
en ung man
manden
en ung mand
den unge mand
mannen
den unge mannen
en man
a man
a young man
the man
a young man
the young man
the man
the young man
a man
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Ancient Greek
Modern Greek
Toponym
/aths/
/aos/
Athos
/thourioi/
/urii/
Thurii
/argos/
/aros/
Argos
/phregella/
/freella/
Fregellae
/khrus/
/xrisi/
Chryse
/golgotha/
/oloa/
Golgotha
/delphoi/
/elfi/
Delphi
/ephesos/
/efesos/
Ephesus
/t eodsia/
/eoosia/
Theodosia
/aigina/
/eina/
Aegina
/kaldonia/
/kalionia/
Caledonia
/kadmeia/
/kamia/
Cadmea
/sardeis/
/saris/
Sardis
/phthia/
/fia/
Phthia
/akhern/
/aeron/
Acheron
/khios/
/ios/
Chios
/thumaina/
/imena/
Thymaina
/khaonia/
/xaonia/
Chaonia
/mosk a/1
/mosxa/
Moscow
(a)
(b)
Romania2
(c)
(d)
Phlegethon
(e)
(f)
Beirut
(g)
(h)
/friia/
Phrygia
(i)
(j)
(k)
There was no Ancient Greek word for Moscow, but if there had been, it'd've been this.
Note: the toponym for Romania in Greek actually refers to a region that initially constituted the kingdom of Romania.
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Unacceptable:
tama
pisi
kikpa
putu
jaqet
waketi
kutaqa
maqetaqi
weqo
janana
oqara
qolqeni
mayni
uteka
qaqira
taqaki
unoqea
purapa
kunka
taqe
nayra
jakaqe
temaka
kape
kawki
alwa
tarkaka
jiliri
tukjata
sipita
qawa
qemi
qapa
tiwula
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d. Earth
e. Freya
f. Freyr
g. Ithun
h. Night
(4)
(7)
(2)
(5)
(8)
(11)
(3)
(6)
(9)
(10)
i. Sun
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becomes
This method of forming Yoda-isms is an example of an unlabeled inversion transduction grammar, a powerful
formalism used in machine translation.
Answer these questions in the Answer Sheets.
E1. For each of these annotated Yoda-isms, write down the original sentence
a. < go [ you must ] >
b. < [ strong [ with [ the force ] ] ] < [this [ one is ] ] < think I > > >
c. < [ < < home [ milk < coming before > ] > [ < to forget > < up pick > ] > tonight ] < don't please > >
E2. For each of these Yoda-isms of the sentence "use the Force Luke" write the annotation that recovers
the original. If no such annotation is possible write "NOT POSSIBLE". If more than one annotation that recovers the original sentence is possible, choose any legal annotation but write "MORE POSSIBLE" next to the
answer.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
E3. If Yoda were not bound by the rules of this puzzle and could reorder the four words of the sentence
"use the Force Luke" in any way he likes, how many ways could he do this?
E4. Since Yoda is bound by the rules of this puzzle, how many ways can he actually reorder "use the Force
Luke"?
E5. For each of the following sentences, write down the number of unique permutations of the sentence and
the number of unique Yoda-isms that can be formed from the sentence. Note the original sentence does
count as one of the permutations.
a. do or do not
b. Luke I am your father
c. a galaxy far far away
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English
1.
Ota
A. Big slope
2.
Nakayama
B.
3.
Kigawa
4.
Kazan
D. Field village
5.
Murakami
E.
6.
Kagawa
F.
7.
Ono
8.
Nomura
H. Little field
9.
Tanaka
I.
Middle mountain
10. Sakuragi
J.
Original rice-field
11. Nihon
K. Cherry tree
12. Osaka
L.
13. Yamazaka
M. Big rice-field
14. Kawakami
N. Fire river
15. Honda
Tree river
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7.
8.
9.
5. not laxaraptic, but just hyxilious 11. not only cromulent but shtingly 17. laxaraptic but not optaxic
6. not just melaxious but efrimious 12. not nistrotic, but just efrimious
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G1. Can you figure out which of the snippets A-I belong to which category below? Write your answers in
the Answer Sheets.
a. CORRECT (4 snippets)
b. WRONG (2 snippets)
c. MAYBE (3 snippets)
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Lao
English
Shan
Lao
English
belly
blood
child
elephant
fruit
knife
large knife
left
meat
mothers
younger sibling
outside
pith
root
rope
sun
to buy
to chew
to choose
to dry in the
sun
to embrace
to know
to pound
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Lao
English
Shan
Lao
English
to roar
to seek
to split
to suck
tongue
wing
wood
(a)
to crouch
(c)
(b)
(d)
(f)
eight
rind
(e)
bad
to pull
horse
Contest Booklet
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b.
c.
2.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
YOUR NAME:
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b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
2.
3. a.
b.
c.
Yoda-isms
b. Permutations
Yoda-isms
h.
i.
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Permutations
Yoda-isms
2.
3.
4.
5.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
6.
7.
(G) Zoink!
1.
a.
CORRECT
b. WRONG
c.
MAYBE
2.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Consonants
Tones
Vowels
8.
9.
10.