Exam question 3 · When things break: boilers, plumbers and paint

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the expression "it will cost an arm and a leg"?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: expression · What happens: follow, characteris, cost · To what, where: expression, arm · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 11 «When things break: boilers, plumbers and paint» of the adult life course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 expression	det
10	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 expression	punct
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 cost	nsubj
13	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 cost	aux
14	cost	cost	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 characterises	ccomp
15	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 arm	det
16	arm	arm	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 cost	obj
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 leg	cc
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 leg	det
19	leg	leg	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 arm	conj
20	"	"	PUNCT	_	19 leg	punct
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the expression	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	cost in a quote	future	expression	a arm and a leg		vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme arm=Value

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

The tradesman shall require payment in bodily injury

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 tradesman	det
2	tradesman	tradesman	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 require	nsubj
3	shall	shall	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 require	aux
4	require	require	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	payment	payment	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 require	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 injury	case
7	bodily	bodily	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 injury	amod
8	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 require	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	shall	the tradesman	payment		bodily injury			vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme payment=Precondition

Option 2

The expenditure incurred will be negligible

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 expenditure	det
2	expenditure	expenditure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 incurred	nsubj
3	incurred	incur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 negligible	aux
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 negligible	cop
6	negligible	negligible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 incurred	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	incur	past	the expenditure						tree rules
2	is	future	the expenditure not said here					negligible property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The expenditure incurred will be very considerable

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 expenditure	det
2	expenditure	expenditure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 incurred	nsubj
3	incurred	incur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 considerable	aux
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 considerable	cop
6	very	very	ADV	_	7 considerable	advmod
7	considerable	considerable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 incurred	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	incur	past	the expenditure						tree rules
2	is	future	the expenditure not said here					considerable property	tree rules

Option 4

The work shall be performed without charge

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 work	det
2	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 performed	nsubj:pass
3	shall	shall	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 performed	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 performed	aux:pass
5	performed	perform	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	without	without	ADP	_	7 charge	case
7	charge	charge	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 performed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perform	shall · passive		the work				without charge	vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/adult-life/11-when-things-break/e3/