Exam question 1 · Sounds and letters: how phonics starts

Identify the principal reason for which the sounds of letters, rather than their names, are employed when a child first learns to read.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, child, sounds · What happens: identify, employ, learn, read, name · To what, where: principal reason, sounds

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1 «Sounds and letters: how phonics starts» of the English 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	18 employed	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sounds	det
8	sounds	sound	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 employed	nsubj:pass
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 letters	case
10	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 sounds	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 names	punct
12	rather	rather	ADV	_	15 names	advmod
13	than	than	ADP	_	15 names	case
14	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 names	nmod:poss
15	names	name	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 sounds	nmod
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 names	punct
17	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 employed	aux:pass
18	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
19	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	23 learns	advmod
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 child	det
21	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 learns	nsubj
22	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	23 learns	advmod
23	learns	learn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 employed	advcl
24	to	to	PART	_	25 read	mark
25	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	23 learns	xcomp
26	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	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	employ	present · passive		the sounds of letters than sounds's names	for the principal reason	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: subject=Theme for which=Eventuality
3	learn	present	a child		first property	vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	read	to-infinitive	a child not said here			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	name		sounds = sound			nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent

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

The sounds are more numerous and therefore more interesting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sounds	det
2	sounds	sound	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 numerous	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 numerous	cop
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 numerous	advmod
5	numerous	numerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 interesting	cc
7	therefore	therefore	ADV	_	8 more	advmod
8	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	9 interesting	advmod
9	interesting	interesting	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 numerous	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the sounds					numerous property	tree rules
2	be		the sounds not said here						tree rules

Option 2

The names of letters are no longer taught in any school

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 names	det
2	names	name	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 taught	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 letters	case
4	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 names	nmod
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 taught	aux:pass
6	no	no	ADV	_	7 longer	advmod
7	longer	long	ADV	Degree=Cmp	8 taught	advmod
8	taught	teach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 school	case
10	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	11 school	det
11	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 taught	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	teach speech: other	present · passive		the names of letters		any school		long property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient
2	name			letters					nom name «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The names of the letters vary from one country to another

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 names	det
2	names	name	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 vary	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 letters	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 letters	det
5	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 names	nmod
6	vary	vary	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	from	from	ADP	_	9 country	case
8	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 country	nummod
9	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 vary	obl
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 another	case
11	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	9 country	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	vary	present	the names of the letters					from one country to another	vn differ-23.4 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme from country=Co-Theme
2	name			the letters					nom name «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The sounds may be blended into words, whereas the names may not

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sounds	det
2	sounds	sound	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 blended	nsubj:pass
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 blended	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 blended	aux:pass
5	blended	blend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	into	into	ADP	_	7 words	case
7	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 blended	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 may	punct
9	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	11 names	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 names	det
11	names	name	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 may	obl
12	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 blended	conj
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 may	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	blend	may · passive		the sounds				into words	vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient into word=Co-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/english/1-sounds-and-letters-how-phonics-starts/e1/