Exam question 2 · Openings that hook the reader

Which of the following most accurately characterises the phrase "It was a dark and stormy night" in contemporary teaching?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: phrase · What happens: follow, characteris, be · To what, where: phrase, dark night, contemporary teaching

This is exam question 2 of lesson 40 «Openings that hook the reader» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 following	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 following	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 following	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	6 accurately	advmod
6	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	7 characterises	advmod
7	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 following	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 phrase	det
9	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 night	punct
11	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 night	nsubj
12	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 night	cop
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 night	det
14	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 night	amod
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 stormy	cc
16	stormy	stormy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 dark	conj
17	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 phrase	appos
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 night	punct
19	in	in	ADP	_	21 teaching	case
20	contemporary	contemporary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 teaching	amod
21	teaching	teaching	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 night	nmod
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 following	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the phrase		accurately property	tree rules
3	is a in a quote	past	phrase	a dark night	contemporary teaching		tree rules

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

A question designed to engage the reader

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 question	det
2	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	designed	design	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 question	acl
4	to	to	PART	_	5 engage	mark
5	engage	engage	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 designed	advcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 reader	det
7	reader	reader	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 engage	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	design	participle		a question not said here					vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	engage	to-infinitive		the reader					vn amalgamate-22.2-3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reader=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

A cliché, owing to excessive use

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 cliché	det
2	cliché	cliché	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 owing	punct
4	owing	owe	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 cliché	acl
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 use	case
6	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 use	amod
7	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 owing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	owe	gerund	a cliché not said here					to excessive use goal	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to use=Goal

Option 3

An example of the passive voice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 example	det
2	example	example	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 voice	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 voice	det
5	passive	passive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 voice	amod
6	voice	voice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 example	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exemplify			the passive voice					nom example «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

A model opening for all narratives

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 model	det
2	model	model	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	opening	open	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 model	acl
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 narratives	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 narratives	det
6	narratives	narrative	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 opening	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	open	gerund	a model not said here					for all narratives	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/40-openings-that-hook-the-reader/e2/