Exam question 4 · Planning before writing

Ascertain the two considerations, hereinafter termed audience and purpose, that ought to precede any plan.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, hereinafter, that · What happens: ascertain, term, precede · To what, where: two considerations, audience, plan

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 considerations	det
3	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 considerations	nummod
4	considerations	consideration	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Ascertain	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 termed	punct
6	hereinafter	hereinafter	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 termed	nsubj
7	termed	term	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 considerations	acl:relcl
8	audience	audience	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 termed	obj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 purpose	cc
10	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 audience	conj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 precede	punct
12	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	15 precede	nsubj
13	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 precede	aux
14	to	to	PART	_	15 precede	mark
15	precede	precede	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 termed	conj
16	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	17 plan	det
17	plan	plan	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 precede	obj
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the two considerations	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent consideration=Topic
2	term	past	hereinafter	audience and purpose	vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent audience=Theme
3	precede	ought	that	any plan	vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme plan=Co-Theme

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 right answer

Who is to read the text, and why it is written

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 read	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 read	cop
3	to	to	PART	_	4 read	mark
4	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 text	det
6	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 read	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 written	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 written	cc
9	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	12 written	advmod
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 written	nsubj:pass
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 written	aux:pass
12	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 read	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						read property	tree rules
2	write	present · passive		text					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

Which title, and which font

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 title	det
2	title	title	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 font	punct
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 font	cc
5	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	6 font	det
6	font	font	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 title	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

How many words, and how many pages

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	2 many	advmod
2	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 words	amod
3	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 pages	punct
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 pages	cc
6	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	7 many	advmod
7	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 pages	amod
8	pages	page	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 words	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

Which pen is used, and how neatly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 pen	det
2	pen	pen	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 used	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 used	aux:pass
4	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 neatly	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 neatly	cc
7	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	8 neatly	advmod
8	neatly	neatly	ADV	_	4 used	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	present · passive		which pen				neatly property	vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

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/e4/