Test 4 · ★ · Openings that hook the reader

What would happen if every story in your class began "Once upon a time"?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: story · What happens: happen, begin

This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 40 «Openings that hook the reader» 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	_	10 began	mark
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 story	det
6	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 began	nsubj
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 class	case
8	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 class	nmod:poss
9	class	class	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 story	nmod
10	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 Once	punct
12	Once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	10 began	advmod
13	upon	upon	ADP	_	15 time	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 time	det
15	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 Once	obl
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 Once	punct
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	begin a condition, not said to happen	past	every story in your class					once property	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

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 stories would hook every reader much more

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 stories	det
2	stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 hook	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 hook	aux
4	hook	hook	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 reader	det
6	reader	reader	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hook	obj
7	much	much	ADV	_	8 more	advmod
8	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 hook	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hook	would	the stories	every reader					vn rotate-51.9.1-1 «NP V NP.extent»: agent=Theme reader=Extent

Option 2

Every single story would turn into a fairy tale

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	3 story	det
2	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 story	amod
3	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 turn	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 turn	aux
5	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	into	into	ADP	_	9 tale	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 tale	det
8	fairy	fairy	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 tale	compound
9	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	every single story			a fairy tale			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into tale=Trajectory

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The openings would all feel the same and dull

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 openings	det
2	openings	opening	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 feel	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 feel	aux
4	all	all	ADV	_	5 feel	advmod
5	feel	feel	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 same	det
7	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 feel	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 dull	cc
9	dull	dull	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 same	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feel	would	the openings	the same				all property	vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent same=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Nothing, because openings never matter at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 matter	punct
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	6 matter	mark
4	openings	opening	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 matter	nsubj
5	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	6 matter	advmod
6	matter	matter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Nothing	parataxis
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 all	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 matter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not matter	present	openings			all			vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

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/t4/