Exam question 3 · Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a text together

Select the response consistent with established conventions concerning cohesion.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established conventions · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, cohesion

This is exam question 3 of lesson 37 «Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a text together» 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	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 conventions	case
6	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 conventions	amod
7	conventions	convention	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
8	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 conventions	acl
9	cohesion	cohesion	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 concerning	obj
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	established conventions not said here	cohesion		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus cohesion=Experiencer

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

Cohesion is achieved solely by the use of full stops

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cohesion	cohesion	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 achieved	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 achieved	aux:pass
3	achieved	achieve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	3 achieved	advmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 use	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 use	det
7	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 achieved	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 full	case
9	full	full	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 use	nmod
10	stops	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 achieved	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	achieve	present · passive	the use of full	Cohesion				solely property	vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Eventuality
2	stop	present	the use of full not said here						vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

Option 2

Cohesion requires every sentence to begin with "then"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cohesion	cohesion	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 requires	nsubj
2	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	4 sentence	det
4	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 requires	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 begin	mark
6	begin	begin	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 requires	advcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 then	case
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 then	punct
9	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	6 begin	obl
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 then	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	Cohesion	every sentence					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme sentence=Precondition
2	begin	to-infinitive	Cohesion not said here						vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with then=Subeventuality

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Pronouns, adverbials and repeated key words link a text together

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Pronouns	pronoun	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 link	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 adverbials	punct
3	adverbials	adverbial	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Pronouns	conj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 words	cc
5	repeated	repeat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 words	amod
6	key	key	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 words	amod
7	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Pronouns	conj
8	link	link	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 text	det
10	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 link	obj
11	together	together	ADV	_	8 link	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	repeat	participle							vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	link	present	Pronouns and adverbials and repeated key words	a text				together property	vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent text=Patient

Option 4

Cohesion is relevant only to poetry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cohesion	cohesion	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 relevant	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 relevant	cop
3	relevant	relevant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	6 poetry	advmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 poetry	case
6	poetry	poetry	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 relevant	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Cohesion					to poetry; relevant property	tree rules

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/37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together/e3/