Exam question 3 · Gran, cousins and the whole wide family

Select the response most consistent with the established meaning of the proverb "Blood is thicker than water".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Blood · What happens: select, establish, be, mean · To what, where: response, proverb

This is exam question 3 of lesson 17 «Gran, cousins and the whole wide family» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 consistent	advmod
5	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	amod
6	with	with	ADP	_	9 meaning	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 meaning	det
8	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 meaning	amod
9	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consistent	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 proverb	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 proverb	det
12	proverb	proverb	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 meaning	nmod
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 thicker	punct
14	Blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 thicker	nsubj
15	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 thicker	cop
16	thicker	thick	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	12 proverb	acl:relcl
17	than	than	ADP	_	18 water	case
18	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 thicker	obl
19	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 thicker	punct
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	is in a quote	present	Blood	the proverb not said here	than water; thick property	tree rules
4	mean			the proverb		nom meaning «communication 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

Physical health is of greater importance than thirst

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Physical	physical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 health	amod
2	health	health	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 importance	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 importance	cop
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 importance	case
5	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 importance	amod
6	importance	importance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	than	than	ADP	_	8 thirst	case
8	thirst	thirst	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 importance	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Physical health					of greater importance; than thirst	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Ties of kinship are stronger than other ties

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ties	tie	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 stronger	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	3 kinship	case
3	kinship	kinship	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ties	nmod
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 stronger	cop
5	stronger	strong	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
6	than	than	ADP	_	8 ties	case
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 ties	amod
8	ties	tie	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 stronger	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Ties of kinship					than other ties; strong property	tree rules

Option 3

Relatives ought never to quarrel with one another

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Relatives	relative	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 quarrel	nsubj
2	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 quarrel	aux
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 quarrel	advmod
4	to	to	PART	_	5 quarrel	mark
5	quarrel	quarrel	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	with	with	ADP	_	7 one	case
7	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 quarrel	obl
8	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	7 one	fixed

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not quarrel	ought	Relatives					with one	vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with one=Co-Agent

Option 4

Water ought not to be mixed with other liquids

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 mixed	nsubj:pass
2	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 mixed	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 mixed	advmod
4	to	to	PART	_	6 mixed	mark
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 mixed	aux:pass
6	mixed	mix	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 liquids	case
8	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 liquids	amod
9	liquids	liquid	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 mixed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not mix	ought · passive		Water				with other liquids	vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient with liquid=Co-Patient

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/17-gran-cousins-and-the-whole-family/e3/