Exam question 1 · Tense consistency and verb forms

Identify the sentence in which the tense is consistent throughout.

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

This is exam question 1 of lesson 31 «Tense consistency and verb forms» 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	3 sentence	det
3	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 consistent	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 tense	det
7	tense	tense	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 consistent	nsubj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 consistent	cop
9	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 sentence	acl:relcl
10	throughout	throughout	ADV	_	9 consistent	advmod
11	.	.	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 sentence					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent sentence=Theme
2	is	present	the tense			the sentence		consistent, throughout property	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

I will open the box and found a key.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 open	nsubj
2	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 open	aux
3	open	open	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 box	det
5	box	box	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 open	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 found	cc
7	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 open	conj
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 key	det
9	key	key	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 found	obj
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 open	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	open	future	I	the box					vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location box=Theme
2	find	past	I not said here	a key					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent key=Topic

Option 2

I opened the box and find a key.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	2 opened	nsubj
2	opened	open	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 box	det
4	box	box	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 opened	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 find	cc
6	find	find	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 opened	conj
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 key	det
8	key	key	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 find	obj
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 opened	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	open	past	I	the box					vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location box=Theme
2	find	infinitive	I not said here	a key					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent key=Topic

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

I opened the box and found a key.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	2 opened	nsubj
2	opened	open	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 box	det
4	box	box	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 opened	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 found	cc
6	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 opened	conj
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 key	det
8	key	key	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 found	obj
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 opened	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	open	past	I	the box					vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location box=Theme
2	find	past	I not said here	a key					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent key=Topic

Option 4

I open the box and found a key.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	2 open	nsubj
2	open	open	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 box	det
4	box	box	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 open	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 found	cc
6	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 open	conj
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 key	det
8	key	key	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 found	obj
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 open	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	open	present	I	the box					vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location box=Theme
2	find	past	I not said here	a key					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent key=Topic

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/31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms/e1/