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Native English speakers needed for experiment


Chiki
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You guys gave such good answers and were so helpful last time I have to give the final version of the experiment to you guys. :o

Any native English speaker can answer these questions. It'll only take like 5 minutes.

I'll just post the first half of the experiment, and in a few days the second half.

Instructions: You will be asked to judge the acceptability of each sentence on the following scale: Acceptable, Unknown or Unacceptable. The acceptability of a sentence is basically the same as the grammaticality of a sentence, but it's not the same kind of grammar that you learned in grammar class. Basically, grammaticality in linguistics is just how acceptable a sentence is for a native speaker (but maybe slightly robotic) of the language. Don't think too deeply about the answers: just give your initial thought after reading the context-sentence pair and thinking about it for a few seconds.
For each of these sentences, imagine that a narrator says it after analyzing the situation. Don't expect a perfect description of the situation at hand; rather, can the sentences be used to describe the context imperfectly (but without giving outright false information of course)? Just copy paste the questions, type in your answers and post it. (In spoiler tags so other people don't see)
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
1) It is dangerous to fail this exam.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
2) It is hard to fail this exam.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
3) It is dangerous for the students to fail this exam.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
4) It is hard for the students to fail this exam.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
5) It is dangerous for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
6) It is hard for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
7) It is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
8) It is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
9) This exam is dangerous to fail.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
10) This exam is hard to fail.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
11) This exam is dangerous for the students to fail.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
12) This exam is hard for the students to fail.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
13) This exam is dangerous for the teachers to fail.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
14) This exam is hard for the teachers to fail.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
15) This exam is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail.
Your answer:
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
16) This exam is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail.
Your answer:
Edited by Chiki
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OK, let's do this!

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.

1) It is dangerous to fail this exam.
Your answer: Acceptable, I guess? Even if the faculty isn't in direct danger to their own persons if they fail the exam, I'd still consider it dangerous to risk the lives of students on an exam.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
2) It is hard to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unacceptable. I view the sentence as describing the difficulty of the exam, and there was nothing in the context giving a sense of how difficult the exam might be.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
3) It is dangerous for the students to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unacceptable. The students don't even have the option of taking the exam. It is impossible for the students to fail or pass the exam, thus failing is impossible and the danger is nonexistent. The sentence could be read in a way that describes the situation properly, but I think there's a fairly strong possibility that a reader would misinterpret the context in the way I described.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
4) It is hard for the students to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unacceptable. If the context was included with the sentence, then it'd be fine. But without the context, this sentence will probably give the false impression that the students are taking the exam and that the exam will be easy for them to pass.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
5) It is dangerous for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer: Acceptable. See my answer to #1: I think that having your students killed is a dangerous possibility. Imagine what the PTA would say!
As a side note, while this might not make much sense, if the sentence read: "It is dangerous for the teachers to fail this exam," I would probably consider that to be emphasizing that the harm for the teachers should be very directly targeted towards the teachers, and I might consider the sentence unacceptable.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
6) It is hard for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unacceptable. There is no information describing the difficulty of the exam. The sentence is a claim without any basis in the context.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
7) It is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer: ...Unknown. Simply on the basis of good grammar, I'd say this is unacceptable. The comma shouldn't be there. But I think that a typical english speaker would read this sentence and receive a proper understanding of what the sentence is trying to say.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
8) It is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unacceptable. First off, the comma doesn't belong. More importantly, while it is true that the students would be put in a difficult situation if their teachers failed the exam, IMO the sentence continues (like previous sentence-context pairs about forced student labor) to give the impression that it is the difficulty of the exam that is being described, as opposed to the situation the students would be in if the professors failed.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
9) This exam is dangerous to fail.
Your answer: Acceptable, and I can't really think of any further justification beyond what I've already written for prior examples of this situation. Actually, I think this form is slightly more acceptable than some of the prior ones, since it assigns the danger less to any one individual. Maybe I should have been more conservative in prior instances! But I really think the earlier ones are still acceptable.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
10) This exam is hard to fail.
Your answer: Unacceptable as usual. The sentence implies the exam is not difficult, but no information about the difficulty of the exam was given by the context.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
11) This exam is dangerous for the students to fail.
Your answer: Unacceptable. I've been over this one before too. It's impossible for the students to take the exam, so the danger of their failing/passing the exam is nonexistent.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
12) This exam is hard for the students to fail.
Your answer: Unacceptable. Since the students can't take the exam, it's not hard or easy for them to fail it. It's impossible.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
13) This exam is dangerous for the teachers to fail.
Your answer: Still going with acceptable. Losing your students is a dangerous proposition.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
14) This exam is hard for the teachers to fail.
Your answer: As usual, unacceptable. Implies a difficulty of the exam that is not described by the context.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
15) This exam is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail.
Your answer: Unknown. I guess a reader might be confused about what the teacher is failing without including info specifying it's the exam that is dangerous to fail? Also, bad comma.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
16) This exam is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail.
Your answer: Unacceptable. As usual, the sentence seems to describe the difficulty of passing/failing as opposed to the difficulty of the resulting situation.

Sorry if I fucked up too much!
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[spoiler=Answer and thoughts]They're all pretty bad save for number 5. There are comma splices in the last section that ruin otherwise good sentences, and the usage of "hard" is incorrect. It's missing a preposition after "hard."

Are you talking about grammar class style grammatical?

Your answers are fine Severlan, but I personally find 3 acceptable. There's no right or wrong answer anyway.

Edited by Chiki
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Nah, syntactically, your sentences are still wonky. I mean, comma splices are bad, but if you looked at it really hard, I guess your usage of "hard" works; however, a native English speaker would have no idea what you were saying and it would sound wrong. Also, the "_____ to fail" format really bothers me for some reason.

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Nah, syntactically, your sentences are still wonky. I mean, comma splices are bad, but if you looked at it really hard, I guess your usage of "hard" works; however, a native English speaker would have no idea what you were saying and it would sound wrong. Also, the "_____ to fail" format really bothers me for some reason.

This is a linguistics experiment in syntax. Trust me, all the sentences are syntactically fine (except a few bad apples I put there as part of the experiment).

Actually, the usage of "hard" is supposed to be much worse than the usage of "dangerous." This is what most native speakers have told me. Most native speakers accept the dangerous sentences and accept the ___to fail format.

Edited by Chiki
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I suppose it's mostly correct besides the egregiously icky ones, but it's still not, like, optimal. I feel like, given the context, a native English speaker would use an entirely different sentence structure/format. An examiner could, upon issuing an exam, describe the exam as dangerous to fail, but from a third party, it sounds awkward.

11) This exam is dangerous for the students to fail.

In this sort of sentence, it's hard to tell whether it's dangerous to fail, or dangerous for the students. If I was writing a sentence for the given purpose:

Failing the exam is dangerous for the students.

It was already specified what exam it was and there is only one, so "this" is a bit superfluous. And then the rest just sounds kinda awkward to me. This sentence flows a lot more naturally. It still sounds dumb to me upon reread, though.

"Failing the exam would endanger the students."

Although "the students" sounds kinda weird to me in this context, too. I dunno why. Maybe because a different qualifier could be used than "the".

In any case, I'd mark almost all as Unknown or Unacceptable except, like, maybe 5 or 9.

I just mulled it over and realized why hard was used that way.

"Dangerous" in that sentence was used to describe the end result of the test; normally, linguistic logic dictates that replacing an adjective with another adjective in that slot would lead to the replacement also describing the end result. But English is wonky so it doesn't work that way, and "hard" describes the "to fail."

Edited by Yasako
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[spoiler=My thoughts in bold]

You guys gave such good answers and were so helpful last time I have to give the final version of the experiment to you guys. :o

Any native English speaker can answer these questions. It'll only take like 5 minutes.

I'll just post the first half of the experiment, and in a few days the second half.

Instructions: You will be asked to judge the acceptability of each sentence on the following scale: Acceptable, Unknown or Unacceptable. The acceptability of a sentence is basically the same as the grammaticality of a sentence, but it's not the same kind of grammar that you learned in grammar class. Basically, grammaticality in linguistics is just how acceptable a sentence is for a native speaker (but maybe slightly robotic) of the language. Don't think too deeply about the answers: just give your initial thought after reading the context-sentence pair and thinking about it for a few seconds.
For each of these sentences, imagine that a narrator says it after analyzing the situation. Don't expect a perfect description of the situation at hand; rather, can the sentences be used to describe the context imperfectly (but without giving outright false information of course)? Just copy paste the questions, type in your answers and post it. (In spoiler tags so other people don't see)
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
1) It is dangerous to fail this exam.
Your answer: Acceptable, if a bit vague.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
2) It is hard to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unacceptable. The wording suggests that the exam is easy, rather than the consequences being harsh.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
3) It is dangerous for the students to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unacceptable. The wording suggests that the students are taking the exam, not the teachers.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
4) It is hard for the students to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unacceptable. Same reasons as 2 and 3.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
5) It is dangerous for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unknown. While the wording is better than in 3 and 4, it still suggests that the consequences apply to the teachers.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
6) It is hard for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unknown. Same reasons as 2 and 5.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
7) It is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unknown. This has the best description of the context, but it's not correct grammatically.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
8) It is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.
Your answer: Unknown. Same reason as 7.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
9) This exam is dangerous to fail.
Your answer: Acceptable, if a bit vague.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
10) This exam is hard to fail.
Your answer: Unacceptable. Same reason as 2.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
11) This exam is dangerous for the students to fail.
Your answer: Unacceptable. Same reason as 3.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
12) This exam is hard for the students to fail.
Your answer: Unacceptable. Same reasons as 2 and 3.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
13) This exam is dangerous for the teachers to fail.
Your answer: Unknown. Same reason as 5.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
14) This exam is hard for the teachers to fail.
Your answer: Unknown. Same reasons as 2 and 5.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.
15) This exam is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail.
Your answer: Unknown. Same reason as 7.
Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.
16) This exam is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail.
Your answer: Unknown. Same reason as 7.

I'm not sure if you were wanting tips on improvement. If you are, then, to me, on numbers 7, 8, 15, and 16, the ideas, "It is dangerous/hard for the students," and, "the teachers to fail," are joined in a way that sounds awkward. I would drop the comma and change "for" to "if". Also, while the "to fail" portion sounds fine on most of the sentences, for the ones I listed, dropping the "to" would make those sentences sound better.

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I'm probably too strict on requiring context matching, so I included some parenthetical assessments that did not fall in your list.

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.

1) It is dangerous to fail this exam.

Your answer: Unacceptable (but Understandable)

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.

2) It is hard to fail this exam.

Your answer: Unacceptable

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.

3) It is dangerous for the students to fail this exam.

Your answer: Unacceptable

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.

4) It is hard for the students to fail this exam.

Your answer: Unacceptable

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.

5) It is dangerous for the teachers to fail this exam.

Your answer: Unknown

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.

6) It is hard for the teachers to fail this exam.

Your answer: Unacceptable

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.

7) It is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.

Your answer: Acceptable

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.

8) It is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail this exam.

Your answer: Unknown

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.

9) This exam is dangerous to fail.

Your answer: Unacceptable (but Understandable)

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.

10) This exam is hard to fail.

Your answer: Unacceptable

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.

11) This exam is dangerous for the students to fail.

Your answer: Unacceptable

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.

12) This exam is hard for the students to fail.

Your answer: Unacceptable

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.

13) This exam is dangerous for the teachers to fail.

Your answer: Unknown

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.

14) This exam is hard for the teachers to fail.

Your answer: Unacceptable

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be executed.

15) This exam is dangerous for the students, for the teachers to fail.

Your answer: Acceptable (but wooden).

Context: Kyle kidnaps his syntax students and forces the rest of the linguistics faculty to take an exam together. If the teachers fail the exam, the students will be forced to clean the entire department without being allowed to eat or take breaks.

16) This exam is hard for the students, for the teachers to fail.

Your answer: Unacceptable

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Oh, must of them are good? Whoops.

There's no right or wrong answers. I personally think most of them are unacceptable.

Btw, guys, don't be too strict like Yasako and Balcerzak. ._.

Edited by Chiki
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1. Acceptable
2. Unacceptable
3. Acceptable
4. Acceptable
5. Acceptable
6. Unacceptable
7. Acceptable
8. Acceptable
9. Acceptable
10. Unacceptable
11. Unacceptable
12. Unacceptable
13. Acceptable
14. Unacceptable
15. Acceptable
16. Acceptable

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Not letting me spoiler my answers. However, I agree mostly with Bal simply because most of the sentences are pretty terrible.

Edited by Oogie Fletzet
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