Teacher: In this task, you need to count the occurrences of the given word in the given sentence.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? If you are still confused, see the following example:
Sentence: 'the brown cat sits perched on atop of the bed peering forward'. Count the occurrences of the word 'the' in the given sentence.
Solution: 2
Reason: The word 'the' appears two times in the given sentences. So, the answer is 2.

Now, solve this instance: Sentence: 'a cat asleep on a couch next to a dog under a cover'. Count the occurrences of the word 'a' in the given sentence.
Student:
4