Exam question 2 · Building tension and suspense

Which of the following most accurately characterises the effect of a sequence of short sentences in a tense passage?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, effect · To what, where: effect, sequence

This is exam question 2 of lesson 42 «Building tension and suspense» 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 effect	det
9	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 sequence	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 sequence	det
12	sequence	sequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 effect	nmod
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 sentences	case
14	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 sentences	amod
15	sentences	sentence	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 sequence	nmod
16	in	in	ADP	_	19 passage	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 passage	det
18	tense	tense	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 passage	amod
19	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 sentences	nmod
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 following	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	the effect of a sequence of short sentences in a tense passage	accurately property	tree rules
3	effect		a sequence of short sentences in a tense passage		nom effect «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient

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 replaces all description with dialogue

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 replaces	nsubj
2	replaces	replace	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 description	det
4	description	description	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 replaces	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 dialogue	case
6	dialogue	dialogue	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 replaces	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	replace	present	It	all description				with dialogue	vn substitute-13.6.2-1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme description=Location with dialogue=Co-Theme

Option 2

It accelerates the action and diminishes anticipation

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 accelerates	nsubj
2	accelerates	accelerate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 action	det
4	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 accelerates	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 diminishes	cc
6	diminishes	diminish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 accelerates	conj
7	anticipation	anticipation	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 diminishes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accelerate	present	It	the action					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent action=Patient
2	diminish	present		anticipation					vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer anticipation=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It decelerates the action and heightens anticipation

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 decelerates	nsubj
2	decelerates	decelerate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 action	det
4	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 decelerates	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 heightens	cc
6	heightens	heighten	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 decelerates	conj
7	anticipation	anticipation	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 heightens	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decelerate	present	It	the action					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent action=Patient
2	heighten	present		anticipation					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent anticipation=Patient

Option 4

It signals the conclusion of the narrative

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 signals	nsubj
2	signals	signal	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 conclusion	det
4	conclusion	conclusion	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 signals	appos
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 narrative	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 narrative	det
7	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 conclusion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conclude			the narrative					nom conclusion «cognition 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/42-building-tension-and-suspense/e2/