Exam question 1 · Being bad at something and keeping going

Identify the principal reason for which a beginner's fingertips cease to hurt after several weeks of guitar practice.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, fingertips · What happens: identify, cease, hurt · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 1 of lesson 37 «Being bad at something and keeping going» 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	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	11 cease	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 beginner	det
8	beginner	beginner	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 fingertips	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 beginner	case
10	fingertips	fingertip	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 cease	nsubj
11	cease	cease	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 hurt	mark
13	hurt	hurt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 cease	xcomp
14	after	after	ADP	_	16 weeks	case
15	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 weeks	amod
16	weeks	week	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 hurt	obl
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 practice	case
18	guitar	guitar	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 practice	compound
19	practice	practice	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 weeks	nmod
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	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	cease	present	a beginner's fingertips			for the principal reason	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
3	hurt	to-infinitive	a beginner's fingertips not said here		week		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

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

The skin toughens into calluses

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 skin	det
2	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 toughens	nsubj
3	toughens	toughen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	5 calluses	case
5	calluses	callus	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 toughens	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	toughen	present	the skin			calluses			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2

The strings are replaced with softer strings by the teacher

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 strings	det
2	strings	string	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 replaced	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 replaced	aux:pass
4	replaced	replace	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 strings	case
6	softer	soft	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	7 strings	amod
7	strings	string	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 replaced	obl
8	by	by	ADP	_	10 teacher	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 teacher	det
10	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 replaced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	replace	present · passive	the teacher	the strings				with softer strings	vn substitute-13.6.2-1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme subject=Location with string=Co-Theme

Option 3

The fingers lose all feeling permanently after practice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fingers	det
2	fingers	finger	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lose	nsubj
3	lose	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	all	all	ADV	_	5 feeling	advmod
5	feeling	feel	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 lose	advcl
6	permanently	permanently	ADV	_	5 feeling	advmod
7	after	after	ADP	_	8 practice	case
8	practice	practice	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 feeling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	present	the fingers						vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	feel	gerund	the fingers not said here				after practice	all, permanently property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus

Option 4

The guitar becomes smaller as it is played more often

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 guitar	det
2	guitar	guitar	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 becomes	nsubj
3	becomes	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	smaller	small	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 becomes	xcomp
5	as	as	SCONJ	_	8 played	mark
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 played	nsubj:pass
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 played	aux:pass
8	played	play	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 smaller	advcl
9	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	10 often	advmod
10	often	often	ADV	_	3 becomes	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	present	the guitar					often, small property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	play	present · passive		guitar					vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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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