Exam question 2 · Persuasive letters, newspaper articles and diaries

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the opening paragraph of a newspaper article?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: newspaper article · What happens: follow, characteris, paragraph · To what, where: opening paragraph

This is exam question 2 of lesson 24 «Persuasive letters, newspaper articles and diaries» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 paragraph	det
10	opening	opening	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 paragraph	amod
11	paragraph	paragraph	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 article	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 article	det
14	newspaper	newspaper	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 article	compound
15	article	article	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 paragraph	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the opening paragraph of a newspaper article	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	paragraph		a newspaper article			nom paragraph «communication intransitive»: of=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 · ← Mova's choice

It is invariably a quotation

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	5 quotation	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 quotation	cop
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	5 quotation	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 quotation	det
5	quotation	quotation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a quotation				invariably property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It conveys who, what, when and where

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 conveys	nsubj
2	conveys	convey	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	2 conveys	obj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 what	punct
5	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	2 conveys	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 when	punct
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	5 what	conj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 where	cc
9	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	5 what	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	convey	present	It						tree rules

Option 3

It contains the moral of the story

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 contains	nsubj
2	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 moral	det
4	moral	moral	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 contains	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 story	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 story	det
7	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 moral	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	present	It	the moral of the story					vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot moral=Theme

Option 4

It records the private feelings of the journalist concerning the events described

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 records	nsubj
2	records	record	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 feelings	det
4	private	private	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 feelings	amod
5	feelings	feeling	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 records	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 journalist	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 journalist	det
8	journalist	journalist	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 feelings	nmod
9	concerning	concern	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 events	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 events	det
11	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 journalist	nmod
12	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 events	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	record	present	It	the private feelings of the journalist concern the events	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feeling=Theme
2	concern	gerund			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
3	describe	participle		the events not said here	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent

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/24-persuasive-letters-newspaper-articles-and-diaries/e2/