Exam question 3 · Vocabulary in context

Ascertain the meaning of «famished» as employed in the sentence «The children were famished after the long walk».

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, meaning, sentence · What happens: ascertain, famish, employ · To what, where: meaning, sentence, children

This is exam question 3 of lesson 20 «Vocabulary in context» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 famished	mark
5	«	«	PUNCT	_	6 famished	punct
6	famished	famish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 meaning	acl
7	»	»	PUNCT	_	6 famished	punct
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 employed	mark
9	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 famished	advcl
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 sentence	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 sentence	det
12	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 employed	obl
13	«	«	PUNCT	_	17 famished	punct
14	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 children	det
15	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 famished	nsubj:pass
16	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 famished	aux:pass
17	famished	famish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 sentence	acl:relcl
18	after	after	ADP	_	21 walk	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 walk	det
20	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 walk	amod
21	walk	walk	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 famished	obl
22	»	»	PUNCT	_	21 walk	punct
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	famish in a quote	past	the meaning not said here				tree rules
3	employ	participle	the meaning not said here		the sentence		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	famish in a quote	past · passive	the sentence not said here	the children		after the long walk	tree rules

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

Exhausted and in need of a lengthy period of sleep before supper

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exhausted	exhaust	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 need	cc
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 need	case
4	need	need	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Exhausted	conj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 period	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 period	det
7	lengthy	lengthy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 period	amod
8	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 need	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 sleep	case
10	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 period	nmod
11	before	before	ADP	_	12 supper	case
12	supper	supper	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Exhausted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exhaust	participle					before supper		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
2	need			a lengthy period of sleep					nom need «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Extremely hungry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Extremely	extremely	ADV	_	2 hungry	advmod
2	hungry	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Lost upon the way

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lost	lose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
2	upon	upon	ADP	_	4 way	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 way	det
4	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Lost	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	participle						upon the way	vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Joyful and excited

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Joyful	joyful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 excited	cc
3	excited	excited	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Joyful	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/20-vocabulary-in-context/e3/