Test 10 · ★★ · Building tension and suspense

Why might a writer use a one-word sentence like "Silence."?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: writer · What happens: use · To what, where: word sentence

This is test 10 · ★★ of lesson 42 «Building tension and suspense» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	5 use	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 use	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 writer	det
4	writer	writer	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 use	nsubj
5	use	use	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 sentence	det
7	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 word	nummod
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 one	punct
9	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 sentence	compound
10	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 use	obj
11	like	like	ADP	_	13 Silence	case
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 Silence	punct
13	Silence	silence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 use	obl
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 use	punct
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 use	punct
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 use	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	might	a writer	a word sentence				like Silence	vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sentence=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

To show that the story has ended

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 show	mark
2	show	show	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 ended	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 story	det
5	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ended	nsubj:pass
6	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 ended	aux
7	ended	end	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 show	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	to-infinitive							vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	end	present · perfect · passive		the story					vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Because the writer ran out of words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 ran	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 writer	det
3	writer	writer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ran	nsubj
4	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	out	out	ADP	_	7 words	case
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 words	case
7	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 ran	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run	past	the writer			words			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme out word=Trajectory

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

To slow the moment and make it stand out

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 slow	mark
2	slow	slow	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 moment	det
4	moment	moment	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 slow	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 make	cc
6	make	make	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 slow	conj
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 make	obj
8	stand	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 make	xcomp
9	out	out	ADP	_	8 stand	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	when	roles by
1	slow	to-infinitive		moment	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	make	infinitive	it		tree rules
3	stand out	infinitive			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

To make the reader skip ahead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 make	mark
2	make	make	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reader	det
4	reader	reader	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 make	obj
5	skip	skip	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 make	xcomp
6	ahead	ahead	ADV	_	5 skip	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	to-infinitive		the reader					tree rules
2	skip	infinitive	the reader not said here					ahead property	vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/t10/