Exam question 4 · Describing: senses, showing and precise words

Ascertain the principal deficiency of the sentence "The big, huge, enormous, massive dog barked".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, bark · To what, where: principal deficiency, big enormous massive dog

This is exam question 4 of lesson 41 «Describing: senses, showing and precise words» 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 deficiency	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 deficiency	amod
4	deficiency	deficiency	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 sentence	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 sentence	det
7	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 deficiency	nmod
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 dog	punct
9	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 dog	det
10	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 dog	amod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 huge	punct
12	huge	huge	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 big	conj
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 big	punct
14	enormous	enormous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 dog	amod
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 enormous	punct
16	massive	massive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 dog	amod
17	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sentence	appos
18	barked	bark	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 dog	acl
19	"	"	PUNCT	_	18 barked	punct
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal deficiency of the sentence					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deficiency=Topic
2	bark in a quote	participle		the big enormous massive dog not said here					vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=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

It contains no verb of any description

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 verb	det
4	verb	verb	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 contains	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 description	case
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 description	det
7	description	description	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 verb	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	present	It	no verb of any description					vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot verb=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It accumulates synonyms that add no further meaning

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 accumulates	nsubj
2	accumulates	accumulate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	synonyms	synonym	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 accumulates	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 add	nsubj
5	add	add	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 synonyms	acl:relcl
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	8 meaning	det
7	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 meaning	amod
8	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 add	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accumulate	present	It	synonyms					vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent synonym=Theme
2	add speech: assert	present	synonyms	no further meaning					vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Patient

Option 3

It is a question lacking a question mark

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 question	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 question	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 question	det
4	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	lacking	lack	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 question	acl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 mark	det
7	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 mark	compound
8	mark	mark	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 lacking	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a question					tree rules
2	lack	gerund	a question not said here	a question mark					tree rules

Option 4

It is composed entirely in the passive voice

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 composed	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 composed	aux:pass
3	composed	compose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	3 composed	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	8 voice	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 voice	det
7	passive	passive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 voice	amod
8	voice	voice	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 composed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	compose	present · passive		It		the passive voice		entirely property	vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result

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/41-describing-senses-showing-and-precise-words/e4/