Test 9 · ★★ · Building tension and suspense

★★★ Which sentence uses a rhetorical question for suspense?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: ★ ★ ★ · What happens: use · To what, where: rhetorical question

This is test 9 · ★★ 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	★	★	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 ★	compound
2	★	★	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ★	compound
3	★	★	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 uses	nsubj
4	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	5 sentence	det
5	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ★	appos
6	uses	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 question	det
8	rhetorical	rhetorical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 question	amod
9	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 uses	obj
10	for	for	ADP	_	11 suspense	case
11	suspense	suspense	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 question	nmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 uses	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	present	★ ★ ★	a rhetorical question				for suspense	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent question=Theme for suspense=Eventuality

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

"Who wants pizza?" asked Dad, and all of us shouted yes at once.

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 wants	punct
2	Who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	3 wants	nsubj
3	wants	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	pizza	pizza	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wants	obj
5	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 wants	punct
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 wants	punct
7	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 wants	ccomp
8	Dad	Dad	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 asked	iobj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 shouted	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 shouted	cc
11	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	14 shouted	nsubj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 us	case
13	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	11 all	nmod
14	shouted	shout	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 asked	conj
15	yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	14 shouted	obj
16	at	at	ADP	_	17 once	case
17	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	14 shouted	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 wants	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	want in a quote	present		pizza		tree rules
2	ask speech: ask	past			Dad	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent dad=Recipient
3	shout speech: express	past	all			vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent yes=Topic

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Who had left the gate open, and why was it still swinging?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	3 left	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 left	aux
3	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 gate	det
5	gate	gate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 left	obj
6	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 left	xcomp
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 swinging	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 swinging	cc
9	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	13 swinging	advmod
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 swinging	aux
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 swinging	nsubj
12	still	still	ADV	_	13 swinging	advmod
13	swinging	swing	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 left	conj
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 left	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leave	past · perfect		the gate				open property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gate=Theme
2	swing	past · progressive	gate				still		vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 3

What is the capital of France? Paris.

Sentence 1: What is the capital of France?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 capital	det
4	capital	capital	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 France	case
6	France	France	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 capital	nmod
7	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the capital of France						tree rules

Sentence 2: Paris.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Paris	Paris	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Paris	punct

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

Option 4

Where are my shoes? I asked Mum.

Sentence 1: Where are my shoes?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Where	where	ADV	PronType=Int	root	root
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Where	cop
3	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 shoes	nmod:poss
4	shoes	shoe	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Where	nsubj
5	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 Where	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	my shoes					where property	tree rules

Sentence 2: I asked Mum.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	2 asked	nsubj
2	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	Mum	mum	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 asked	nsubj
4	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 asked	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	I						vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/t9/