Exam question 1 · Scary news: wars, disasters and how to talk about them

Identify the principal reason for which disasters and acts of violence feature prominently in news broadcasts.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, violence feature · What happens: identify, act · To what, where: principal reason, news broadcasts

This is exam question 1 of lesson 51 «Scary news: wars, disasters and how to talk about them» 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	_	7 disasters	case
6	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	7 disasters	det
7	disasters	disaster	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 reason	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 acts	cc
9	acts	act	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 disasters	conj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 feature	case
11	violence	violence	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 feature	compound
12	feature	feature	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acts	nmod
13	prominently	prominently	ADV	_	1 Identify	advmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 broadcasts	case
15	news	news	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 broadcasts	compound
16	broadcasts	broadcast	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Identify	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		news broadcasts		for which disasters and acts of violence feature; prominently property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	act		violence feature						nom act «communication intransitive»: of=agent

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 right answer

They are unusual and recent, and therefore newsworthy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 unusual	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 unusual	cop
3	unusual	unusual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 recent	cc
5	recent	recent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 unusual	conj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 newsworthy	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 newsworthy	cc
8	therefore	therefore	ADV	_	9 newsworthy	advmod
9	newsworthy	newsworthy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 unusual	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	They	unusual property	tree rules
2	be		They not said here		tree rules
3	be		They not said here	therefore property	tree rules

Option 2

They occur in every locality on a daily basis without exception

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 occur	nsubj
2	occur	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 locality	case
4	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	5 locality	det
5	locality	locality	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 occur	obl
6	on	on	ADP	_	9 basis	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 basis	det
8	daily	daily	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 basis	amod
9	basis	basis	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 occur	obl
10	without	without	ADP	_	11 exception	case
11	exception	exception	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 occur	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occur	present	They			every locality		on a daily basis; without exception	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in locality=Location

Option 3

Broadcasters are obliged to show only misfortune

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Broadcasters	broadcaster	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 obliged	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 obliged	aux:pass
3	obliged	oblige	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 show	mark
5	show	show	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 obliged	advcl
6	only	only	ADV	_	7 misfortune	advmod
7	misfortune	misfortune	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 show	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	oblige	present · passive		Broadcasters					vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	show	to-infinitive		misfortune					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent misfortune=Recipient

Option 4

They are invented in order to attract viewers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 invented	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 invented	aux:pass
3	invented	invent	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 order	case
5	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 invented	obl
6	to	to	PART	_	7 attract	mark
7	attract	attract	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 invented	advcl
8	viewers	viewer	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 attract	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	invent	present · passive		They		order			vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result
2	attract	to-infinitive		viewers					vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent viewer=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.

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