Exam question 4 · Putting it together: reading and writing like a writer

Ascertain which of the following constitutes "showing" rather than "telling".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, following constitutes · What happens: ascertain, follow, show, tell · To what, where: following constitutes · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 54 «Putting it together: reading and writing like a writer» 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	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 constitutes	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 constitutes	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 constitutes	det
5	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 constitutes	amod
6	constitutes	constitute	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Ascertain	obj
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 showing	punct
8	showing	show	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 constitutes	acl
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 showing	punct
10	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	13 telling	cc
11	than	than	ADP	_	10 rather	fixed
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 telling	punct
13	telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 showing	conj
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 telling	punct
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the following constitutes	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent constitute=Topic
2	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	show in a quote	gerund	the following constitutes not said here		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	tell speech: assert in a quote	gerund	the following constitutes not said here		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: 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

She was afraid.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 afraid	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 afraid	cop
3	afraid	afraid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 afraid	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	She					afraid property	tree rules

Option 2

She felt great fear.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 felt	nsubj
2	felt	feel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 fear	amod
4	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 felt	obj
5	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 felt	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feel	past	She	great fear					vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fear=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Her hands trembled.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 hands	nmod:poss
2	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 trembled	nsubj
3	trembled	tremble	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 trembled	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tremble	past	Her hands						vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

She was scared stiff.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 stiff	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 stiff	cop
3	scared	scared	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 stiff	amod
4	stiff	stiff	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 stiff	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	She					stiff property	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.

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