Exam question 2 · Olympiad: tricky comprehension

Select the response that most accurately characterises the assertion "It is not untrue that Sam did not go to the party."

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, most, It, Sam · What happens: select, characteris, not be, not go · To what, where: response, assertion, party · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 60 «Olympiad: tricky comprehension» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 characterises	mark
5	most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 characterises	nsubj
6	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	5 most	advmod
7	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Select	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 assertion	det
9	assertion	assertion	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	14 untrue	punct
11	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 untrue	nsubj
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 untrue	cop
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 untrue	advmod
14	untrue	untrue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 assertion	parataxis
15	that	that	SCONJ	_	19 go	mark
16	Sam	Sam	PROPN	Number=Sing	19 go	nsubj
17	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 go	aux
18	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	19 go	advmod
19	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 untrue	ccomp
20	to	to	ADP	_	22 party	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 party	det
22	party	party	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 go	obl
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct
24	"	"	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	characteris	present	most	the assertion			tree rules
3	not is in a quote	present	It			untrue property	tree rules
4	not go in a quote	past · do-support	Sam		the party		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to party=Initial_Location

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

Sam attended the party

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sam	Sam	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 attended	nsubj
2	attended	attend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 party	det
4	party	party	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 attended	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attend	past	Sam	the party					vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme party=Goal

Option 2

Sam attended only briefly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sam	Sam	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 attended	nsubj
2	attended	attend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 briefly	advmod
4	briefly	briefly	ADV	_	2 attended	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attend	past	Sam					briefly property	vn caring-75.2-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Sam's attendance is unknown

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sam	Sam	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 attendance	nmod:poss
2	's	's	PART	_	1 Sam	case
3	attendance	attendance	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 unknown	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 unknown	cop
5	unknown	unknown	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Sam's attendance					unknown property	tree rules
2	attend		Sam						nom attendance «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Sam did not attend the party

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sam	Sam	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 attend	nsubj
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 attend	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 attend	advmod
4	attend	attend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 party	det
6	party	party	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 attend	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not attend	past · do-support	Sam	the party					vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme party=Goal

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/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/e2/