Exam question 1 · Red envelopes and New Year wishes

Identify the customary mode of receiving a red envelope from an elder.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, customary mode · What happens: identify, receive · To what, where: customary mode, red envelope, elder

This is exam question 1 of lesson 26 «Red envelopes and New Year wishes» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 mode	det
3	customary	customary	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mode	compound
4	mode	mode	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 receiving	mark
6	receiving	receive	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 mode	acl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 envelope	det
8	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 envelope	amod
9	envelope	envelope	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 receiving	obj
10	from	from	ADP	_	12 elder	case
11	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 elder	det
12	elder	elder	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 envelope	nmod
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the customary mode					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent mode=Theme
2	receive	gerund	the customary mode not said here	a red envelope		a elder			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent envelope=Theme from elder=Source

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

With one hand, in silence and without looking

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	With	with	ADP	_	3 hand	case
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 hand	nummod
3	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 silence	punct
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 silence	case
6	silence	silence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 hand	appos
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 looking	cc
8	without	without	SCONJ	_	9 looking	mark
9	looking	look	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 silence	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	gerund							vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus

Option 2

By opening it at once and counting the contents

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 opening	mark
2	opening	open	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 opening	obj
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 once	case
5	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	2 opening	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 counting	cc
7	counting	count	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 opening	conj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 contents	det
9	contents	contents	NOUN	Number=Ptan	7 counting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	open	gerund		it					vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent it=Theme at once=Location
2	count	gerund		the contents					vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent contents=Theme

Option 3

By declining it thrice and departing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 declining	mark
2	declining	decline	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 declining	obj
4	thrice	thrice	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 declining	xcomp
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 departing	cc
6	departing	depart	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 declining	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decline	gerund		it				thrice property	vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
2	depart	gerund							vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

With both hands, accompanied by thanks and a wish

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	With	with	ADP	_	3 hands	case
2	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	3 hands	det
3	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 accompanied	punct
5	accompanied	accompany	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 hands	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 thanks	case
7	thanks	thanks	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 accompanied	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 wish	cc
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 wish	det
10	wish	wish	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 thanks	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accompany	participle		both hands not said here				by thanks and a wish	vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent by thanks=Destination

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/26-red-envelopes-and-new-year-wishes/e1/