Exam question 2 · Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers

Identify the principal meaning conveyed when an educational institution in the United Kingdom is graded "requires improvement" pursuant to inspection.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, convey, grade, require · To what, where: principal meaning, educational institution, improvement · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 meaning	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 meaning	amod
4	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 meaning	acl
6	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	15 graded	advmod
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 institution	det
8	educational	educational	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 institution	amod
9	institution	institution	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 graded	nsubj:pass
10	in	in	ADP	_	13 Kingdom	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 Kingdom	det
12	United	United	PROPN	_	13 Kingdom	flat
13	Kingdom	Kingdom	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 institution	nmod
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 graded	aux:pass
15	graded	grade	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 requires	nsubj
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 graded	punct
17	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	parataxis
18	improvement	improvement	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 requires	obj
19	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 requires	punct
20	pursuant	pursuant	ADV	_	22 inspection	advmod
21	to	to	ADP	_	22 inspection	case
22	inspection	inspection	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 requires	obl
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal meaning		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme clause=Attribute
2	convey	participle		the principal meaning not said here		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	grade	present · passive		a educational institution in the United Kingdom		vn classify-29.10 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
4	require in a quote	present		improvement	to inspection	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme improvement=Precondition

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 institution's premises require repair

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 institution	det
2	institution	institution	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 premises	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 institution	case
4	premises	premise	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 require	nsubj
5	require	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	repair	repair	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 require	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	the institution's premises	repair					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme repair=Precondition
2	premise		the institution						nom premise «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

The institution is to be expanded

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 institution	det
2	institution	institution	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 expanded	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 expanded	aux:pass
4	to	to	PART	_	6 expanded	mark
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 expanded	aux:pass
6	expanded	expand	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	expand	present · passive		the institution					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The institution is of poor quality

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 institution	det
2	institution	institution	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 quality	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 quality	cop
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 quality	case
5	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 quality	amod
6	quality	quality	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the institution					of poor quality	tree rules

Option 4

The institution is of outstanding quality

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 institution	det
2	institution	institution	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 quality	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 quality	cop
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 quality	case
5	outstanding	outstanding	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 quality	amod
6	quality	quality	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the institution					of outstanding quality	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/e2/