Exam question 4 · Writing to inform, instruct and persuade
Ascertain the five interrogatives customarily addressed in a newspaper report.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, address · To what, where: five interrogatives, newspaper report
This is exam question 4 of lesson 44 «Writing to inform, instruct and persuade» 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 | 4 interrogatives | det |
| 3 | five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 4 interrogatives | nummod |
| 4 | interrogatives | interrogative | NOUN | Number=Plur | 1 Ascertain | obj |
| 5 | customarily | customarily | ADV | _ | 6 addressed | advmod |
| 6 | addressed | address | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 interrogatives | acl |
| 7 | in | in | ADP | _ | 10 report | case |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 report | det |
| 9 | newspaper | newspaper | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 report | compound |
| 10 | report | report | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 addressed | obl |
| 11 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Ascertain | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ascertain | imperative | you not said here | the five interrogatives | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent interrogative=Topic | ||||
| 2 | address | participle | the five interrogatives not said here | a newspaper report | customarily property | vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
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
If, but, and, or and so
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 3 but | mark |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 but | punct |
| 3 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 7 or | cc |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 or | punct |
| 5 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 or | cc |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 or | punct |
| 7 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 9 so | cc |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 or | cc |
| 9 | so | so | ADV | _ | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
How, how much, how many, how far and how long
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | How | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 4 much | advmod |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 much | punct |
| 3 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 4 much | advmod |
| 4 | much | much | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 many | punct |
| 6 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 7 many | advmod |
| 7 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 much | conj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 far | punct |
| 9 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 10 far | advmod |
| 10 | far | far | ADV | Degree=Pos | 4 much | advcl |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 long | cc |
| 12 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 13 long | advmod |
| 13 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | 10 far | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
Who, what, where, when and why
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 3 what | nsubj |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 what | punct |
| 3 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 where | punct |
| 5 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 3 what | conj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 when | punct |
| 7 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 3 what | conj |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 why | cc |
| 9 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 3 what | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Which, whose, whom, whither and whence
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 7 whither | nsubj |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 whither | punct |
| 3 | whose | whose | PRON | Poss=Yes PronType=Rel | 7 whither | nmod:poss |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 whither | punct |
| 5 | whom | whom | PRON | PronType=Rel | 7 whither | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 whither | punct |
| 7 | whither | whither | ADV | PronType=Rel | root | root |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 whence | cc |
| 9 | whence | whence | ADV | PronType=Int | 7 whither | 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/44-writing-to-inform-instruct-and-persuade/e4/