Exam question 4 · Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a text together

Ascertain the defect in the sentence "Tom met Sam and he laughed".

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Tom · What happens: ascertain, meet, laugh · To what, where: defect, sentence, Sam · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 defect	det
3	defect	defect	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 sentence	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sentence	det
6	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obl
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 met	punct
8	Tom	Tom	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 met	nsubj
9	met	meet	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Ascertain	parataxis
10	Sam	Sam	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 met	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 laughed	cc
12	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 laughed	nsubj
13	laughed	laugh	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 met	conj
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 met	punct
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the defect	the sentence	tree rules
2	meet in a quote	past	Tom	Sam		vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sam=Co-Agent
3	laugh in a quote	past	Tom			vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=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

The sentence contains a comma splice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sentence	det
2	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 contains	nsubj
3	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 splice	det
5	comma	comma	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 splice	compound
6	splice	splice	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 contains	obj

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The referent of "he" is ambiguous

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 referent	det
2	referent	referent	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 ambiguous	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 he	case
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 he	punct
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 referent	nmod
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 he	punct
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 ambiguous	cop
8	ambiguous	ambiguous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the referent of he					ambiguous property	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The verb "met" is in the future tense

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 verb	det
2	verb	verb	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 tense	nsubj
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 met	punct
4	met	meet	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 verb	acl
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 met	punct
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 tense	cop
7	in	in	ADP	_	10 tense	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 tense	det
9	future	future	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 tense	amod
10	tense	tense	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	meet in a quote	participle		the verb not said here					vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	the verb			the future tense			tree rules

Option 4

The sentence lacks a verb

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sentence	det
2	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lacks	nsubj
3	lacks	lack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 verb	det
5	verb	verb	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lacks	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lack	present	the sentence	a verb					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/e4/