Exam question 2 · Scary news: wars, disasters and how to talk about them

Whereas a single incident is broadcast repeatedly across several channels and devices, determine the number of incidents which have in fact occurred.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, incidents · What happens: broadcast, determine, have, occur · To what, where: single incident, several channels, number, fact

This is exam question 2 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	Whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	6 broadcast	mark
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 incident	det
3	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 incident	amod
4	incident	incident	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 broadcast	nsubj:pass
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 broadcast	aux:pass
6	broadcast	broadcast	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 determine	advcl
7	repeatedly	repeatedly	ADV	_	6 broadcast	advmod
8	across	across	ADP	_	10 channels	case
9	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 channels	amod
10	channels	channel	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 broadcast	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 devices	cc
12	devices	device	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 channels	conj
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 broadcast	punct
14	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 number	det
16	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 determine	obj
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 incidents	case
18	incidents	incident	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 number	nmod
19	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	20 have	nsubj
20	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 incidents	acl:relcl
21	in	in	ADP	_	22 fact	case
22	fact	fact	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 occurred	obl
23	occurred	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 have	ccomp
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	14 determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	broadcast speech: other	present · passive		a single incident	several channels and devices	repeatedly property	vn instr_communication-37.4.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic
2	determine	imperative	you not said here	the number of incidents			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent number=Topic
3	have	present	incidents				tree rules
4	occur	past	incidents not said here		fact		vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in fact=Location

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

As many incidents as there were broadcasts, channels and devices

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	As	as	ADP	_	3 incidents	case
2	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 incidents	amod
3	incidents	incident	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 broadcasts	obl
4	as	as	SCONJ	_	6 were	mark
5	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	6 were	expl
6	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 broadcasts	cop
7	broadcasts	broadcast	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 channels	punct
9	channels	channel	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 broadcasts	conj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 devices	cc
11	devices	device	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 broadcasts	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		broadcasts and channels and devices				as many incidents	tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

A number which increases with each hour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 number	det
2	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 increases	nsubj
4	increases	increase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 number	acl:relcl
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 hour	case
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 hour	det
7	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 increases	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	increase	present	a number				hour		vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

One incident, presented on multiple occasions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	One	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 incident	nummod
2	incident	incident	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 presented	compound
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 incident	punct
4	presented	present	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	on	on	ADP	_	7 occasions	case
6	multiple	multiple	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 occasions	amod
7	occasions	occasion	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 presented	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	present	participle				multiple occasions			vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

A number which no person can ascertain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 number	det
2	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 ascertain	obj
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 person	det
5	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ascertain	nsubj
6	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 ascertain	aux
7	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 number	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	can	no person	a number					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Topic

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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