Exam question 1 · Screens, diets, sofas and late nights

Identify the principal reason for which parents restrict the duration of their children's use of electronic screens.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, parents, children · What happens: identify, restrict, use · To what, where: principal reason, duration, electronic screens

This is exam question 1 of lesson 29 «Screens, diets, sofas and late nights» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 restrict	obl
7	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 restrict	nsubj
8	restrict	restrict	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 duration	det
10	duration	duration	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 restrict	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	15 use	case
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 children	nmod:poss
13	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 use	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 children	case
15	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 duration	nmod
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 screens	case
17	electronic	electronic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 screens	amod
18	screens	screen	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 use	nmod
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	restrict	present	parents	the duration of parents's children's use of electronic screens	for the principal reason	vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer duration=Patient
3	use		parents's children	electronic screens		nom use «act transitive»: poss=agent 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

Screens are harmful exclusively to adults

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Screens	screen	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 harmful	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 harmful	cop
3	harmful	harmful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	3 harmful	advmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 adults	case
6	adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 harmful	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Screens					to adults; exclusively, harmful property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Excessive use is detrimental to sleep, mood and play

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 use	amod
2	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 detrimental	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 detrimental	cop
4	detrimental	detrimental	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 sleep	mark
6	sleep	sleep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 detrimental	xcomp
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 mood	punct
8	mood	mood	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 detrimental	conj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 play	cc
10	play	play	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 mood	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Excessive use					detrimental property	tree rules
2	sleep	to-infinitive	Excessive use not said here						vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Electronic devices are damaged by prolonged operation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Electronic	electronic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 devices	amod
2	devices	device	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 damaged	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 damaged	aux:pass
4	damaged	damage	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 operation	case
6	prolonged	prolong	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 operation	amod
7	operation	operation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 damaged	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	damage	present · passive	prolonged operation	Electronic devices					vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	prolong	participle							vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Children are incapable of operating such devices

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 incapable	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 incapable	cop
3	incapable	incapable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 devices	case
5	operating	operating	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 devices	compound
6	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 devices	amod
7	devices	device	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 incapable	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Children					of operating such devices; incapable property	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/29-screens-diets-sofas-and-late-nights/e1/