Exam question 3 · Building tension and suspense

Select the response consistent with established principles of suspense.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: select, establish · To what, where: consistent

This is exam question 3 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 consistent	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consistent	obl:unmarked
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 principles	case
6	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 principles	amod
7	principles	principle	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 suspense	case
9	suspense	suspense	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 principles	nmod
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the consistent					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent consistent=Theme
2	establish	participle							vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot

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

All information is supplied to the reader at the outset

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 information	det
2	information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 supplied	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 supplied	aux:pass
4	supplied	supply	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 reader	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 reader	det
7	reader	reader	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 supplied	obl
8	at	at	ADP	_	10 outset	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 outset	det
10	outset	outset	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 supplied	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	supply	present · passive		all information	the reader	the outset			vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Theme to reader=Recipient

Option 2

The threat is described fully in the first sentence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 threat	det
2	threat	threat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 described	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 described	aux:pass
4	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	fully	fully	ADV	_	4 described	advmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	9 sentence	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sentence	det
8	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	9 sentence	amod
9	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 described	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	present · passive		the threat		the first sentence		fully property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Theme

Option 3

The narrative avoids all uncertainty

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 narrative	det
2	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 avoids	nsubj
3	avoids	avoid	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 uncertainty	det
5	uncertainty	uncertainty	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 avoids	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	avoid	present	the narrative	all uncertainty					vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent uncertainty=Location

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Information concerning the threat is withheld from the reader

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 withheld	nsubj:pass
2	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Information	acl
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 threat	det
4	threat	threat	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 concerning	obj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 withheld	aux:pass
6	withheld	withhold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	from	from	ADP	_	9 reader	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 reader	det
9	reader	reader	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 withheld	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	concern	gerund	Information not said here	the threat					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus threat=Experiencer
2	withhold	present · passive		Information		the reader			tree rules

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/e3/