Exam question 3 · Author's choices: why this word, why this way

Select the response that accurately identifies the device employed in the phrase «the house was a sleeping giant».

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, house · What happens: select, identify, employ, be · To what, where: response, device, phrase, sleeping giant

This is exam question 3 of lesson 21 «Author's choices: why this word, why this way» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 identifies	nsubj
5	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	6 identifies	advmod
6	identifies	identify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 response	acl:relcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 device	det
8	device	device	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 identifies	obj
9	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 device	acl
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 phrase	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 phrase	det
12	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 employed	obl
13	«	«	PUNCT	_	19 giant	punct
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 house	det
15	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 giant	nsubj
16	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 giant	cop
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 giant	det
18	sleeping	sleeping	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 giant	compound
19	giant	giant	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 employed	obl
20	»	»	PUNCT	_	19 giant	punct
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	identify	present	the response	the device		accurately property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent device=Theme
3	employ	participle		the device not said here	the phrase		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	is a in a quote	past	the house	a sleeping giant			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

Onomatopoeia

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Onomatopoeia	onomatopoeia	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 2

Alliteration

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Alliteration	alliteration	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 3

Simile, the comparison being introduced by the word «as»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Simile	simile	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 introduced	nsubj:pass
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Simile	punct
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 comparison	det
4	comparison	comparison	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 introduced	nsubj:pass
5	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 introduced	aux:pass
6	introduced	introduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 word	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 word	det
9	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 introduced	obl
10	«	«	PUNCT	_	11 as	punct
11	as	as	ADV	_	9 word	advmod
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 as	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	introduce	gerund · passive	the word	Simile					vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Metaphor

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Metaphor	metaphor	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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/21-authors-choices-why-this-word-why-this-way/e3/