Exam question 4 · Spring Festival — Chinese New Year

Ascertain the meaning of the custom designated "shǒusuì".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, custom · What happens: ascertain, designate, mean · To what, where: meaning, shǒusuì, custom

This is exam question 4 of lesson 25 «Spring Festival — Chinese New Year» of the Chinese street 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 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 custom	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 custom	det
6	custom	custom	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
7	designated	designate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 custom	acl
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 shǒusuì	punct
9	shǒusuì	shǒusuì	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 designated	obj
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 shǒusuì	punct
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the custom	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	designate	participle	the custom not said here	shǒusuì	vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shǒusuì=Theme
3	mean			the custom	nom meaning «communication 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

Visiting the graves of ancestors

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Visiting	visit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 graves	det
3	graves	grave	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Visiting	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 ancestors	case
5	ancestors	ancestor	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 graves	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	visit	gerund		the graves of ancestors					vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grave=Co-Agent

Option 2

Abstaining from food on New Year's Day until nightfall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Abstaining	abstain	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	from	from	ADP	_	3 food	case
3	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Abstaining	obl
4	on	on	ADP	_	8 Day	case
5	New	New	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 Year	compound
6	Year	Year	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Day	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 Year	case
8	Day	Day	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 food	nmod
9	until	until	ADP	_	10 nightfall	case
10	nightfall	nightfall	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Abstaining	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	abstain	gerund				food on New Year's Day	until nightfall		vn refrain-69 «NP V PP.theme S_ING»: agent=Agent from food=Eventuality

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Remaining awake to witness the arrival of the New Year

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Remaining	remain	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	awake	awake	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 witness	amod
3	to	to	PART	_	4 witness	mark
4	witness	witness	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Remaining	obj
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 arrival	det
6	arrival	arrival	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Remaining	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 Year	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Year	det
9	New	New	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Year	compound
10	Year	Year	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 arrival	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	gerund		awake witness					tree rules
2	arrive		the New Year						nom arrival «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4

Racing boats upon a river

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Racing	racing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 boats	compound
2	boats	boat	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 river	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 river	det
5	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 boats	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/chinese-street/25-spring-festival/e4/