Re: test example

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

On Wednesday 02 September 2009 11:07:46 Jorge Llambías wrote:
> "lo _cipnrkuku_ cu _punji_ le ri _sodva_ le zdani be lo _drata_ cipni"
>
> A. cipnrkuku
> B. punji
> C. sodva
> D. drata
> E. _no se srera_ (written for example in some other font)
>
> (Very tricky question. It took me a while to realize that the answer
> wasn't in fact E. If there wasn't a "no se srera" option it would have
> been easier. Not sure if we really want to include this kind of
> thing.)

I think we should. People confuse words in natlangs too, and there are 
questions on proficiency tests for there/they're/their and lay/lie (the past 
of one verb is homophonous with the present of the other). One pair that 
trips me up in Spanish is vendrá/venderá, because French vendra is Spanish 
venderá and French viendra is Spanish vendrá.

I thought of another one. A sentence I made up for illustrating "be'o" is "ti 
zbasu be lo takybli bei lo kliti be'o minji". Remove "be'o" and it's still 
grammatical, but silly: "This makes bricks out of clay machines." As a test 
question:

ti<u> </u>zbasu <u>be</u> lo takybli <u>bei</u> lo kliti<u> </u>minji
A. <u> </u>
B. <u>be</u>
C. <u>bei</u>
D. <u> </u>
E. <i>no se srera</i>

Is that a good way of indicating a missing word?

Pierre