Test 10 · ★★ · Putting it together: reading and writing like a writer

Which reply to a friend's story is the most useful?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: reply, be · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 10 · ★★ of lesson 54 «Putting it together: reading and writing like a writer» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	2 reply	nsubj
2	reply	reply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	7 story	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 friend	det
5	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 story	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 friend	case
7	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 useful	obl
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 useful	cop
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 useful	det
10	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	11 useful	advmod
11	useful	useful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 reply	ccomp
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 reply	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reply speech: assert	present							vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	present						to a friend's story; useful property	tree rules

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

It's good, I guess, it was all right, I suppose.

The tree, 11 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 good	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 good	cop
3	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 guess	punct
5	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 guess	nsubj
6	guess	guess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 good	parataxis
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 right	punct
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 right	nsubj
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 right	cop
10	all	all	ADV	_	11 right	advmod
11	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 good	conj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 suppose	punct
13	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	14 suppose	nsubj
14	suppose	suppose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 good	parataxis
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 good	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	It	good property	tree rules
2	guess	present	I		vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	is	past	it	all, right property	tree rules
4	suppose	present	I		vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Meh. It was a story. It had words in it, I think.

Sentence 1: Meh.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

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

Sentence 2: It was a story.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 story	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 story	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 story	det
4	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 story	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	a story					tree rules

Sentence 3: It had words in it, I think.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 had	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 it	case
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 words	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 think	punct
7	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	8 think	nsubj
8	think	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 had	parataxis
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 had	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	story	words		it			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient
2	think speech: other	present	I						vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Mine's better, to be honest, but yours is fine.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mine	my	PRON	Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 better	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 better	cop
3	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 honest	punct
5	to	to	PART	_	7 honest	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 honest	cop
7	honest	honest	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 better	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 fine	punct
9	but	but	CCONJ	_	12 fine	cc
10	yours	your	PRON	Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 fine	nsubj
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 fine	cop
12	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 honest	conj
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 better	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	Mine	good property	tree rules
2	is	to-infinitive	Mine not said here	honest property	tree rules
3	is	present	yours	fine property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Your opening grabbed me; the middle could be shorter.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 opening	nmod:poss
2	opening	opening	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grabbed	nsubj
3	grabbed	grab	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 grabbed	obj
5	;	;	PUNCT	_	10 shorter	punct
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 middle	det
7	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 shorter	nsubj
8	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 shorter	aux
9	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 shorter	cop
10	shorter	short	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 grabbed	parataxis
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 grabbed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grab	past	Your opening	me					vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme
2	is	could	the middle					short 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/54-reading-and-writing-like-a-writer/t10/