Exam question 4 · Colours: mixing, the colour wheel, warm and cool

Ascertain the reason for which purple was historically associated with persons of high rank.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, associate · To what, where: reason, purple

This is exam question 4 of lesson 13 «Colours: mixing, the colour wheel, warm and cool» of the arts 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 associated	obl
6	purple	purple	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 associated	nsubj:pass
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 associated	aux:pass
8	historically	historically	ADV	_	9 associated	advmod
9	associated	associate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl:relcl
10	with	with	ADP	_	11 persons	case
11	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 associated	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 rank	case
13	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 rank	amod
14	rank	rank	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 persons	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	associate	past · passive		purple				for the reason; with persons of high rank; historically property	vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient with person=Co-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

It occurred naturally only in royal gardens

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 occurred	nsubj
2	occurred	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	naturally	naturally	ADV	_	2 occurred	advmod
4	only	only	ADV	_	2 occurred	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 gardens	case
6	royal	royal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 gardens	amod
7	gardens	garden	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 occurred	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occur	past	It			royal gardens		naturally property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in garden=Location

Option 2

It was devised by an emperor for his exclusive use

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 devised	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 devised	aux:pass
3	devised	devise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 emperor	case
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 emperor	det
6	emperor	emperor	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 devised	obl:agent
7	for	for	ADP	_	10 use	case
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 use	nmod:poss
9	exclusive	exclusive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 use	amod
10	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 devised	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	devise	past · passive	a emperor	It				for his exclusive use	vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	use		his = he						nom use «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Its dye, obtained from sea snails, was exceedingly costly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 dye	nmod:poss
2	dye	dye	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 costly	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 obtained	punct
4	obtained	obtain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 dye	acl
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 snails	case
6	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 snails	compound
7	snails	snail	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 obtained	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 dye	punct
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 costly	cop
10	exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	_	11 costly	advmod
11	costly	costly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	obtain	participle		Its dye not said here				from sea snails	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from snail=Source
2	is	past	Its dye					costly, exceedingly property	tree rules

Option 4

It was the sole colour visible to monarchs and their courts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 visible	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 visible	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 colour	det
4	sole	sole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 colour	amod
5	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 visible	nsubj
6	visible	visible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	to	to	ADP	_	8 monarchs	case
8	monarchs	monarch	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 visible	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 courts	cc
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 courts	nmod:poss
11	courts	court	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 monarchs	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	It					to monarchs and monarchs's courts; visible 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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