Exam question 1 · Retrieval: finding the answer in the text

Identify the principal characteristic of a retrieval question.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify · To what, where: principal characteristic

This is exam question 1 of lesson 17 «Retrieval: finding the answer in the text» 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 characteristic	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 characteristic	amod
4	characteristic	characteristic	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 question	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 question	det
7	retrieval	retrieval	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 question	compound
8	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 characteristic	nmod
9	.	.	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 principal characteristic of a retrieval question					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent characteristic=Theme

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

It solicits the reader's personal opinion of the text

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 solicits	nsubj
2	solicits	solicit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reader	det
4	reader	reader	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 opinion	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 reader	case
6	personal	personal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 opinion	amod
7	opinion	opinion	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 solicits	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 text	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 text	det
10	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 opinion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	solicit	present	It	the reader's personal opinion of the text					tree rules
2	opine		the reader	the text					nom opinion «cognition transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

Option 2

It requires knowledge obtained from beyond the text

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 requires	nsubj
2	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 requires	obj
4	obtained	obtain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 knowledge	acl
5	from	from	ADP	_	8 text	case
6	beyond	beyond	ADP	_	8 text	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 text	det
8	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 obtained	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	It	knowledge					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme knowledge=Precondition
2	obtain	participle		knowledge not said here		the text			vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from text=Source

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It requires information stated explicitly within the text

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 requires	nsubj
2	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 requires	obj
4	stated	state	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 information	acl
5	explicitly	explicitly	ADV	_	4 stated	advmod
6	within	within	ADP	_	8 text	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 text	det
8	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 stated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	It	information					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme information=Precondition
2	state speech: other	participle		information not said here				within the text; explicitly property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 4

It invites the reader to conjecture what may happen subsequently

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 invites	nsubj
2	invites	invite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reader	det
4	reader	reader	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 invites	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 conjecture	mark
6	conjecture	conjecture	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 invites	advcl
7	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	9 happen	nsubj
8	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 happen	aux
9	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 conjecture	ccomp
10	subsequently	subsequently	ADV	_	9 happen	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	invite	present	It	the reader		vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reader=Recipient
2	conjecture	to-infinitive				vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	happen	may			subsequently property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/17-retrieval-finding-the-answer-in-the-text/e1/