Exam question 4 · When parents separate

Ascertain the purpose of conducting the transfer of a child between parents at a neutral location.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, purpose · What happens: ascertain, conduct, transfer · To what, where: purpose, transfer, neutral location, child

This is exam question 4 of lesson 15 «When parents separate» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 purpose	det
3	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 conducting	mark
5	conducting	conduct	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 purpose	acl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 transfer	det
7	transfer	transfer	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 conducting	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 child	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 child	det
10	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 transfer	nmod
11	between	between	ADP	_	12 parents	case
12	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 child	nmod
13	at	at	ADP	_	16 location	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 location	det
15	neutral	neutral	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 location	amod
16	location	location	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 conducting	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the purpose		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent purpose=Topic
2	conduct	gerund	the purpose not said here	the transfer of a child between parents	a neutral location	vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent transfer=Theme at location=Destination
3	transfer			a child between parents		nom transfer «act transitive»: of=patient

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

To prevent the child from seeing either parent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 prevent	mark
2	prevent	prevent	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 child	det
4	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 prevent	obj
5	from	from	SCONJ	_	6 seeing	mark
6	seeing	see	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 prevent	advcl
7	either	either	DET	PronType=Ind	8 parent	det
8	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 seeing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	to-infinitive		the child					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer child=Theme
2	see	gerund		either parent					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer parent=Stimulus

Option 2

To comply with the requirements of the police

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 comply	mark
2	comply	comply	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	with	with	ADP	_	5 requirements	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 requirements	det
5	requirements	requirement	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 comply	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 police	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 police	det
8	police	police	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 requirements	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	comply	to-infinitive						with the requirements of the police	tree rules
2	require			the police					nom requirement «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

To permit the purchase of groceries

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 permit	mark
2	permit	permit	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 purchase	det
4	purchase	purchase	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 permit	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 groceries	case
6	groceries	grocery	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 purchase	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	permit	to-infinitive		the purchase of groceries					vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent purchase=Theme
2	purchase			groceries					nom purchase «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

To ensure that the handover is calm and expeditious

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 ensure	mark
2	ensure	ensure	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 calm	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 handover	det
5	handover	handover	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 calm	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 calm	cop
7	calm	calm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 ensure	ccomp
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 expeditious	cc
9	expeditious	expeditious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 calm	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	ensure	to-infinitive			vn ensure-99 «NP V that S»: agent=Precondition
2	is	present	the handover	calm property	tree rules
3	be		the handover not said here		tree rules

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/15-when-parents-separate/e4/