Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises a pupil described in a written report as "not working to her full potential"?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, describe, write, not work · To what, where: pupil, written report

This is exam question 1 of lesson 16 «Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers» of the euphemisms 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 pupil	det
10	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 pupil	acl
12	in	in	ADP	_	15 report	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 report	det
14	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 report	amod
15	report	report	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 described	obl
16	as	as	SCONJ	_	19 working	mark
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	19 working	punct
18	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	19 working	advmod
19	working	work	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 described	advcl
20	to	to	ADP	_	23 potential	case
21	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	23 potential	nmod:poss
22	full	full	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 potential	amod
23	potential	potential	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 working	obl
24	"	"	PUNCT	_	23 potential	punct
25	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	a pupil		of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	describe	participle	a pupil not said here	a written report		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
4	write	participle				vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	not work in a quote	gerund			to pupil's full potential	vn employment-95.3 «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

The pupil has attained the maximum standard

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pupil	det
2	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 attained	nsubj:pass
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 attained	aux
4	attained	attain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 standard	det
6	maximum	maximum	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 standard	amod
7	standard	standard	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 attained	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attain	present · perfect · passive		the pupil					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary standard=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The pupil is insufficiently diligent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pupil	det
2	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 diligent	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 diligent	cop
4	insufficiently	insufficiently	ADV	_	5 diligent	advmod
5	diligent	diligent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the pupil					diligent, insufficiently property	tree rules

Option 3

The pupil is unwell and absent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pupil	det
2	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 unwell	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 unwell	cop
4	unwell	unwell	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 absent	cc
6	absent	absent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 unwell	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the pupil					unwell property	tree rules
2	be		the pupil not said here						tree rules

Option 4

The pupil has exceeded all expectations

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pupil	det
2	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 exceeded	nsubj:pass
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 exceeded	aux
4	exceeded	exceed	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 expectations	det
6	expectations	expectation	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 exceeded	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exceed	present · perfect · passive		the pupil					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/euphemisms/16-school-reports/e1/