Exam question 4 · Openings that hook the reader

Ascertain the principal objection to an ending in which events are revealed to have been a dream.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, reveal, be · To what, where: principal objection, events, ending, dream

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 objection	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 objection	amod
4	objection	objection	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 ending	case
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 ending	det
7	ending	ending	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obl
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 which	case
9	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 revealed	obl
10	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 revealed	nsubj
11	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 revealed	aux:pass
12	revealed	reveal	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 ending	acl:relcl
13	to	to	PART	_	17 dream	mark
14	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	17 dream	aux
15	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	17 dream	cop
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 dream	det
17	dream	dream	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 revealed	xcomp
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal objection		to a ending	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent objection=Topic
2	reveal	present · passive		events	a ending		vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic
3	is a	to-infinitive · perfect		a dream			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 · ← Mova's choice

It is excessively long and tedious in all instances

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	4 long	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 long	cop
3	excessively	excessively	ADV	_	4 long	advmod
4	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 tedious	cc
6	tedious	tedious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 long	conj
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 instances	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 instances	det
9	instances	instance	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 long	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It			all instances		excessively, long property	tree rules
2	be								tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It renders the preceding events without consequence

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	2 renders	nsubj
2	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 events	det
4	preceding	precede	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 events	amod
5	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 renders	obj
6	without	without	ADP	_	7 consequence	case
7	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	It	the preceding events				without consequence	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent event=Theme
2	precede	gerund							vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme

Option 3

It is prohibited in all examinations

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 prohibited	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 prohibited	aux:pass
3	prohibited	prohibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 examinations	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 examinations	det
6	examinations	examination	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 prohibited	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prohibit	present · passive		It		all examinations			vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4

It contains no punctuation of any kind whatsoever

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	2 contains	nsubj
2	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 punctuation	det
4	punctuation	punctuation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 contains	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 kind	case
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 kind	det
7	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 punctuation	nmod
8	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 contains	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	present	It	no punctuation of any kind				whatsoever property	vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot punctuation=Theme
2	punctuate			any kind					nom punctuation «event transitive»: of=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/40-openings-that-hook-the-reader/e4/