Exam question 3 · Shifts, nights and other ways of working

Given that a payslip records gross pay and deductions, ascertain which figure represents the sum available for expenditure.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: payslip, gross pay, figure · What happens: give, record, ascertain, represent · To what, where: gross pay, sum

This is exam question 3 of lesson 2 «Shifts, nights and other ways of working» 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	Given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	5 records	mark
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 payslip	det
4	payslip	payslip	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 records	nsubj
5	records	record	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Given	advcl
6	gross	gross	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 pay	amod
7	pay	pay	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 records	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 deductions	cc
9	deductions	deduction	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 pay	conj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 ascertain	punct
11	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 pay	acl:relcl
12	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	13 figure	det
13	figure	figure	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 represents	nsubj
14	represents	represent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 ascertain	ccomp
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 sum	det
16	sum	sum	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 represents	obj
17	available	available	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 sum	amod
18	for	for	ADP	_	19 expenditure	case
19	expenditure	expenditure	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 available	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Given	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	give	participle			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	record	present	a payslip	gross pay and deductions	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pay=Theme
3	ascertain	present	gross pay and deductions not said here		vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	represent	present	which figure	the sum	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot sum=Theme

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 · ✓ the right answer

Net pay, being gross pay less all deductions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Net	net	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 pay	amod
2	pay	pay	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 pay	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 gross	punct
4	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 gross	cop
5	gross	gross	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 pay	amod
6	pay	pay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 pay	advmod
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 deductions	det
9	deductions	deduction	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 pay	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	gerund						gross property	tree rules
2	pay	present	Net pay	all deductions				less property	vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deduction=Asset

Option 2

The aggregate of income tax and National Insurance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 aggregate	det
2	aggregate	aggregate	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 tax	case
4	income	income	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tax	compound
5	tax	tax	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 aggregate	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 National	cc
7	National	National	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 tax	conj
8	Insurance	Insurance	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 National	flat

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Gross pay, prior to any deductions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Gross	gross	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 pay	amod
2	pay	pay	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 pay	punct
4	prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	7 deductions	case
5	to	to	ADP	_	4 prior	fixed
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 deductions	det
7	deductions	deduction	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pay	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

The pension contribution alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 contribution	det
2	pension	pension	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 contribution	compound
3	contribution	contribution	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	alone	alone	ADV	_	3 contribution	advmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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.

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