Exam question 2 · Reading for pleasure and the reading book at home

Identify the principal reason for which a parent who reads little may nevertheless assist a child's reading.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, parent, child · What happens: identify, read, assist · To what, where: principal reason, little, reading

This is exam question 2 of lesson 16 «Reading for pleasure and the reading book at home» 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	14 assist	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 parent	det
8	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 assist	nsubj
9	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 reads	nsubj
10	reads	read	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 parent	acl:relcl
11	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 reads	obj
12	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 assist	aux
13	nevertheless	nevertheless	ADV	_	14 assist	advmod
14	assist	assist	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 reason	acl:relcl
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 child	det
16	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 reading	nmod:poss
17	's	's	PART	_	16 child	case
18	reading	reading	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 assist	obj
19	.	.	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	read	present	a parent	little		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent little=Topic
3	assist	may	a parent	a child's reading	for the principal reason; nevertheless property	vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reading=Beneficiary
4	read		a child			nom reading «cognition 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

Such a parent is obliged by law to attend reading classes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	DET	PronType=Ind	3 parent	det:predet
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 parent	det
3	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 obliged	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 obliged	aux:pass
5	obliged	oblige	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 law	case
7	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 obliged	obl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 attend	mark
9	attend	attend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 obliged	xcomp
10	reading	reading	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 classes	compound
11	classes	class	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 attend	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	oblige	present · passive	law	such parent					vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent subject=Patient clause=Result
2	attend	to-infinitive	law not said here	reading classes					vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme class=Goal

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Children learn to read exclusively by the imitation of their parents, irrespective of instruction

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 learn	nsubj
2	learn	learn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 read	mark
4	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 learn	xcomp
5	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	4 read	advmod
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 imitation	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 imitation	det
8	imitation	imitation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 read	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 parents	case
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 parents	nmod:poss
11	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 imitation	nmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 instruction	punct
13	irrespective	irrespective	ADV	_	15 instruction	advmod
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 instruction	case
15	instruction	instruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 learn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	learn	present	Children		of instruction	tree rules
2	read	to-infinitive	Children not said here		by the imitation of Children's parents; exclusively property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	imitate			Children's parents		nom imitation «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Listening and discussion of the story are themselves of substantial benefit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Listening	listen	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 themselves	csubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 discussion	cc
3	discussion	discussion	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Listening	conj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 story	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 story	det
6	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 discussion	nmod
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 themselves	cop
8	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	root	root
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 benefit	case
10	substantial	substantial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 benefit	amod
11	benefit	benefit	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 themselves	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	listen	gerund				vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present	Listening	themselves = they	of substantial benefit	tree rules
3	discuss			the story		nom discussion «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The school forbids parents who read a great deal from assisting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 school	det
2	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 forbids	nsubj
3	forbids	forbid	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 forbids	obj
5	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 read	nsubj
6	read	read	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 parents	acl:relcl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 deal	det
8	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 deal	amod
9	deal	deal	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 read	obj
10	from	from	ADP	_	11 assisting	case
11	assisting	assisting	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 read	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forbid	present	the school	parents					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer parent=Theme
2	read	present	parents	a great deal		assisting			vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent deal=Topic from assisting=Source

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/16-reading-for-pleasure-and-the-reading-book-at-home/e2/