Test 4 · ★ · Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a text together

What would happen if a writer used "he" all the way through a story about three boys?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: writer · What happens: happen, use · To what, where: writer, he

This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 37 «Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a text together» of the English course of Mova's primary school. 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 writer	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 writer	det
6	writer	writer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
7	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 writer	acl
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 he	punct
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 used	obl
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 he	punct
11	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	13 way	det:predet
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 way	det
13	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 he	conj
14	through	through	ADP	_	16 story	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 story	det
16	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 way	nmod
17	about	about	ADP	_	19 boys	case
18	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	19 boys	nummod
19	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 story	nmod
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would		a writer					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	use	participle	a writer not said here	he					vn eat-39.1 «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 · ← Mova's choice

It would become a non-fiction report

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	3 become	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 become	aux
3	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 report	det
5	non-fiction	non-fiction	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 report	compound
6	report	report	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	would	It	a non-fiction report					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Readers would get confused about who does what

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Readers	reader	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 get	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 get	aux
3	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	confused	confused	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 get	xcomp
5	about	about	SCONJ	_	7 does	mark
6	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 does	nsubj
7	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 get	advcl
8	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	7 does	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	would	Readers					confused property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
2	do	present							vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality

Option 3

Nothing, readers can always guess

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 readers	compound
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	readers	reader	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 guess	nsubj
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 guess	aux
5	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	6 guess	advmod
6	guess	guess	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	guess	can	Nothing readers					always property	vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The story would be much clearer and a lot shorter to read

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 story	det
2	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 clearer	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 clearer	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 clearer	cop
5	much	much	ADV	_	6 clearer	advmod
6	clearer	clear	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 shorter	cc
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 lot	det
9	lot	lot	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 shorter	obl:unmarked
10	shorter	short	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 clearer	conj
11	to	to	PART	_	12 read	mark
12	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 shorter	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	would	the story		clear property	tree rules
2	be		the story not said here	a lot		tree rules
3	read	to-infinitive	the story not said here			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «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/37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together/t4/