Exam question 4 · Building tension and suspense

Ascertain the meaning of the regional term "mardy" as employed in the North and Midlands of England.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, employ, mean · To what, where: meaning, North, regional term

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 term	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 term	det
6	regional	regional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 term	amod
7	term	term	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 mardy	punct
9	mardy	mardy	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 term	appos
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 mardy	punct
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 employed	mark
12	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Ascertain	advcl
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 North	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 North	det
15	North	North	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 employed	obl
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 Midlands	cc
17	Midlands	Midland	PROPN	Number=Plur	15 North	nmod
18	of	of	ADP	_	19 England	case
19	England	England	PROPN	Number=Sing	17 Midlands	nmod
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the regional term		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	employ	participle	you not said here		the North Midlands of England	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	mean			the regional term		nom meaning «communication 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 · ✓ the right answer

Sulky or ill-tempered

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sulky	sulky	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 tempered	amod
2	or	or	CCONJ	_	3 ill	cc
3	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Sulky	conj
4	-	-	PUNCT	_	1 Sulky	punct
5	tempered	temper	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	temper	participle							tree rules

Option 2

Courageous or bold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Courageous	Courageous	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	or	or	CCONJ	_	3 bold	cc
3	bold	bold	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Courageous	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Frightening or alarming

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Frightening	frightening	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	or	or	CCONJ	_	3 alarming	cc
3	alarming	alarming	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Frightening	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

Exhausted or weary

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exhausted	exhausted	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	or	or	CCONJ	_	3 weary	cc
3	weary	weary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Exhausted	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/e4/