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Exam question 2 · Inference: reading between the lines

It is stated that a character's hands trembled as he opened a letter. Identify the inference best supported by this evidence.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: hands, he, you · What happens: state, tremble, open, identify, support · To what, where: It, letter, inference · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 18 «Inference: reading between the lines» 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

Sentence 1: It is stated that a character's hands trembled as he opened a letter.

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	3 stated	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 stated	aux:pass
3	stated	state	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 trembled	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 character	det
6	character	character	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 hands	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 character	case
8	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 trembled	nsubj
9	trembled	tremble	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 stated	ccomp
10	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 opened	mark
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 opened	nsubj
12	opened	open	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 trembled	advcl
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 letter	det
14	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 opened	obj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 stated	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	state speech: other	present · passive		It					tree rules
2	tremble	past	a character's hands						vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	open	past	he	a letter					vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location letter=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.

Sentence 2: Identify the inference best supported by this evidence.

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	3 inference	det
3	inference	inference	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	best	well	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 supported	advmod
5	supported	support	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 inference	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 evidence	case
7	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	8 evidence	det
8	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 supported	obl
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 inference					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent inference=Theme
2	support	participle		the inference not said here				by this evidence; well property	vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

That the character was cold, the weather being wintry and the house unheated

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 character	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 character	det
3	character	character	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cold	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 cold	cop
5	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 wintry	punct
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 weather	det
8	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 wintry	nsubj
9	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 wintry	cop
10	wintry	wintry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cold	conj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 unheated	cc
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 house	det
13	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 unheated	nsubj
14	unheated	unheated	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cold	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	that character					cold property	tree rules
2	is	gerund	the weather					wintry property	tree rules
3	be		the house						tree rules

Option 2

That the letter was empty

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 letter	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 letter	det
3	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 empty	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 empty	cop
5	empty	empty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	that letter					empty property	tree rules

Option 3

That the character was asleep

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 character	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 character	det
3	character	character	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 asleep	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 asleep	cop
5	asleep	asleep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	that character					asleep property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

That the character was nervous

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 character	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 character	det
3	character	character	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 nervous	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 nervous	cop
5	nervous	nervous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	that character					nervous property	tree rules

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/18-inference-reading-between-the-lines/e2/