Test 11 · Being bad at something and keeping going
Nikhil's teacher shakes her head at "born talent". Why?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: teacher · What happens: shake, bear · To what, where: head, born talent
This is test 11 of lesson 37 «Being bad at something and keeping going» of the arts course of Mova's primary school. 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
Sentence 1: Nikhil's teacher shakes her head at "born talent".
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikhil | Nikhil | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 teacher | nmod:poss |
| 2 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 1 Nikhil | case |
| 3 | teacher | teacher | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 shakes | nsubj |
| 4 | shakes | shake | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 head | nmod:poss |
| 6 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 shakes | obj |
| 7 | at | at | ADP | _ | 10 talent | case |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 talent | punct |
| 9 | born | bear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 10 talent | amod |
| 10 | talent | talent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 shakes | obl |
| 11 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 talent | punct |
| 12 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 shakes | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | shake | present | Nikhil's teacher | teacher's head | born talent | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent head=Theme at talent=Trajectory | |||
| 2 | bear in a quote | participle | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: 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.
Sentence 2: Why?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | root | root |
| 2 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 1 Why | punct |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
Teachers do not believe that anyone has any talent
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Teachers | teacher | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 believe | nsubj |
| 2 | do | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 believe | aux |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 4 believe | advmod |
| 4 | believe | believe | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 7 has | mark |
| 6 | anyone | anyone | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 7 has | nsubj |
| 7 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 believe | ccomp |
| 8 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 9 talent | det |
| 9 | talent | talent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 has | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not believe | present · do-support | Teachers | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 2 | have | present | anyone | any talent | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent talent=Patient |
Option 2
Nikhil cheated to win the drawing prize
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikhil | Nikhil | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 cheated | nsubj |
| 2 | cheated | cheat | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | PART | _ | 4 win | mark |
| 4 | win | win | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 cheated | xcomp |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 prize | det |
| 6 | drawing | drawing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 prize | compound |
| 7 | prize | prize | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 win | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | cheat | past | Nikhil | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | win | to-infinitive | Nikhil not said here | the drawing prize | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prize=Eventuality |
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
Even talented people improve mainly by practising
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Even | even | ADV | _ | 2 talented | advmod |
| 2 | talented | talented | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 people | amod |
| 3 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 improve | nsubj |
| 4 | improve | improve | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | mainly | mainly | ADV | _ | 4 improve | advmod |
| 6 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 7 practising | mark |
| 7 | practising | practise | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 improve | advcl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | improve | present | talented people | mainly property | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | ||||
| 2 | practise | gerund | talented people not said here | tree rules |
Option 4
Talent is something that only adults can have
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Talent | talent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 something | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 something | cop |
| 3 | something | something | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | root | root |
| 4 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 8 have | obj |
| 5 | only | only | ADV | _ | 6 adults | advmod |
| 6 | adults | adult | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 have | nsubj |
| 7 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 8 have | aux |
| 8 | have | have | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 something | acl:relcl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | Talent | something | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | have | can | adults | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/t11/