Exam question 3 · Olympiad: tricky comprehension

Ascertain the meaning of the notice "Dogs must be carried on the escalator."

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, notice · What happens: ascertain, carry, mean · To what, where: meaning, Dogs, escalator, notice

This is exam question 3 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 notice	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 notice	det
6	notice	notice	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 carried	punct
8	Dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 carried	nsubj:pass
9	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 carried	aux
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 carried	aux:pass
11	carried	carry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 notice	acl
12	on	on	ADP	_	14 escalator	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 escalator	det
14	escalator	escalator	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 carried	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the notice		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	carry in a quote	must · passive	the notice not said here	Dogs	the escalator	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
3	mean			the notice		nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient

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

Dogs may carry small items

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 carry	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 carry	aux
3	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 items	amod
5	items	item	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 carry	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	may	Dogs	small items					vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent item=Theme

Option 2

Dogs are prohibited on the escalator

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 prohibited	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 prohibited	aux:pass
3	prohibited	prohibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 escalator	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 escalator	det
6	escalator	escalator	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 prohibited	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prohibit	present · passive		Dogs		the escalator			vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

All persons must carry a dog

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 persons	det
2	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 carry	nsubj
3	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 carry	aux
4	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 dog	det
6	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 carry	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	must	all persons	a dog					vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Persons with dogs must carry them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 carry	nsubj
2	with	with	ADP	_	3 dogs	case
3	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Persons	nmod
4	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 carry	aux
5	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 carry	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	must	Persons with dogs	dogs = dog					vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

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/e3/