Exam question 1 · Planning before writing

Identify the principal purpose of planning prior to composition.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, planning · What happens: identify, purpose · To what, where: principal purpose

This is exam question 1 of lesson 39 «Planning before writing» 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	4 purpose	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 purpose	amod
4	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 planning	case
6	planning	planning	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 purpose	nmod
7	prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	9 composition	case
8	to	to	ADP	_	7 prior	fixed
9	composition	composition	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
10	.	.	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 principal purpose of planning				prior composition	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent purpose=Theme
2	purpose		planning						nom purpose «cognition intransitive»: of=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

To eliminate entirely the need for any subsequent writing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 eliminate	mark
2	eliminate	eliminate	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	2 eliminate	advmod
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 need	det
5	need	need	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 eliminate	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	9 writing	case
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	9 writing	det
8	subsequent	subsequent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 writing	amod
9	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 eliminate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eliminate	to-infinitive		the need				for any subsequent writing; entirely property	vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent need=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To determine content and order before writing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 determine	mark
2	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	content	content	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 determine	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 order	cc
5	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 content	conj
6	before	before	ADP	_	7 writing	case
7	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 determine	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	determine	to-infinitive		content and order			before writing		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent content=Topic

Option 3

To lengthen considerably the time expended on a task

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 lengthen	mark
2	lengthen	lengthen	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	considerably	considerably	ADV	_	2 lengthen	advmod
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 time	det
5	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lengthen	obj
6	expended	expend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 time	acl
7	on	on	ADP	_	9 task	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 task	det
9	task	task	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 expended	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lengthen	to-infinitive					time	considerably property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	expend	participle		the time not said here		a task			tree rules

Option 4

To decorate the page prior to its submission for marking

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 decorate	mark
2	decorate	decorate	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 page	det
4	page	page	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 decorate	obj
5	prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	8 submission	case
6	to	to	ADP	_	5 prior	fixed
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 submission	nmod:poss
8	submission	submission	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 decorate	obl
9	for	for	ADP	_	10 marking	case
10	marking	marking	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 decorate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decorate	to-infinitive		the page				prior page's submission; for marking	vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent page=Destination
2	submit		page						nom submission «communication transitive»: poss=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/39-planning-before-writing/e1/