Exam question 2 · Active and passive voice, modal verbs

Ascertain the passive form, in the identical tense, of the sentence "The dog ate the cake".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, dog · What happens: ascertain, eat · To what, where: passive form, identical tense, cake · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 32 «Active and passive voice, modal verbs» 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	4 form	det
3	passive	passive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 form	amod
4	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 tense	punct
6	in	in	ADP	_	9 tense	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 tense	det
8	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 tense	amod
9	tense	tense	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 sentence	punct
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 sentence	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 sentence	det
13	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 tense	conj
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 ate	punct
15	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 dog	det
16	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 ate	nsubj
17	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 sentence	parataxis
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 cake	det
19	cake	cake	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 ate	obj
20	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 ate	punct
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the passive form		the identical tense and the sentence			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent form=Topic
2	eat in a quote	past	the dog	the cake					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cake=Patient

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

The cake is eaten by the dog.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cake	det
2	cake	cake	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 eaten	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 eaten	aux:pass
4	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 dog	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 dog	det
7	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 eaten	obl:agent
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 eaten	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	present · passive	the dog	the cake					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 2

The cake will be eaten by the dog.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cake	det
2	cake	cake	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 eaten	nsubj
3	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 eaten	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 eaten	aux:pass
5	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 dog	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 dog	det
8	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 eaten	obl:agent
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 eaten	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	future · passive	the dog	the cake					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The cake was eaten by the dog.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cake	det
2	cake	cake	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 eaten	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 eaten	aux:pass
4	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 dog	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 dog	det
7	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 eaten	obl:agent
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 eaten	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	past · passive	the dog	the cake					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 4

The cake has been eating by the dog.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cake	det
2	cake	cake	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 eating	nsubj
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 eating	aux
4	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 eating	aux
5	eating	eat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 dog	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 dog	det
8	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 eating	obl
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 eating	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	present · perfect · progressive	the cake					by the dog	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: 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/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/e2/