Exam question 2 · Scary films, nightmares and sad endings

Determine the meaning of the phrase "based on a true story" as employed in respect of a cinematographic work.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: determine, base, employ, mean, respect · To what, where: meaning, phrase, true story, respect, cinematographic work

This is exam question 2 of lesson 56 «Scary films, nightmares and sad endings» 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	Determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Determine	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 phrase	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 phrase	det
6	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 phrase	punct
8	based	base	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 phrase	acl
9	on	on	ADP	_	12 story	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 story	det
11	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 story	amod
12	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 based	obl
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 story	punct
14	as	as	SCONJ	_	15 employed	mark
15	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 story	acl
16	in	in	ADP	_	17 respect	case
17	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 employed	obl
18	of	of	ADP	_	21 work	case
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 work	det
20	cinematographic	cinematographic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 work	amod
21	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 respect	nmod
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the phrase		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	base in a quote	participle		the phrase not said here	a true story	vn base-97.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent on story=Source
3	employ	participle		a true story not said here	respect of a cinematographic work	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	mean			the phrase		nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient
5	respect			a cinematographic work		nom respect «cognition 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

That every event depicted occurred precisely as shown

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 event	det
2	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	3 event	det
3	event	event	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 occurred	nsubj:pass
4	depicted	depict	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 occurred	aux:pass
5	occurred	occur	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	precisely	precisely	ADV	_	5 occurred	advmod
7	as	as	SCONJ	_	8 shown	mark
8	shown	show	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 occurred	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occur	past · passive		that event				precisely property	tree rules
2	show	participle							vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

That the work derives from real events but alters them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 derives	nsubj
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 work	det
3	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 derives	nsubj
4	derives	derive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 events	case
6	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 events	amod
7	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 derives	obl
8	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 alters	cc
9	alters	alter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 derives	conj
10	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 alters	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	derive	present	That			real events			vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.material»: agent=Agent from event=Material
2	alter	present	That not said here	events = event					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent they=Patient

Option 3

That the work was filmed at the actual time of the events

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 filmed	nsubj:pass
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 work	det
3	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 filmed	nsubj:pass
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 filmed	aux:pass
5	filmed	film	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	at	at	ADP	_	9 time	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 time	det
8	actual	actual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 time	amod
9	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 filmed	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 events	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 events	det
12	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 time	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	film	past · passive		That			time		vn transcribe-25.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4

That the events depicted are entirely fictitious

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 events	nsubj
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 events	det
3	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 fictitious	nsubj
4	depicted	depict	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 events	acl
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 fictitious	cop
6	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	7 fictitious	advmod
7	fictitious	fictitious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	event		That			tree rules
2	depict	participle		the events not said here		vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent
3	is	present	the events		entirely, fictitious 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.

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