Exam question 3 · Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers
It is stated that a pupil is "easily distracted". Select the response that is consistent with the established meaning of this expression.
Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, response · What happens: state, distract, select, be, establish, mean · To what, where: It, pupil, response, expression · Speech: someone speaks here
This is exam question 3 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
Sentence 1: It is stated that a pupil is "easily distracted".
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 stated | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 stated | aux:pass |
| 3 | stated | state | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 10 distracted | mark |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 pupil | det |
| 6 | pupil | pupil | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 distracted | nsubj:pass |
| 7 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 10 distracted | aux:pass |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 distracted | punct |
| 9 | easily | easily | ADV | _ | 10 distracted | advmod |
| 10 | distracted | distract | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 stated | ccomp |
| 11 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 distracted | punct |
| 12 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 stated | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | state speech: other | present · passive | It | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | distract in a quote | present · passive | a pupil | easily property | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
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.
Sentence 2: Select the response that is consistent with the established meaning of this expression.
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 | PRON | PronType=Rel | 6 consistent | nsubj |
| 5 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 consistent | cop |
| 6 | consistent | consistent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 response | acl:relcl |
| 7 | with | with | ADP | _ | 10 meaning | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 meaning | det |
| 9 | established | establish | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 10 meaning | amod |
| 10 | meaning | meaning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 consistent | obl |
| 11 | of | of | ADP | _ | 13 expression | case |
| 12 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 13 expression | det |
| 13 | expression | expression | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 meaning | nmod |
| 14 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Select | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | 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 | is | present | the response | with the established meaning of this expression; consistent property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | establish | participle | vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot | ||||||
| 4 | mean | this expression | nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient |
The options
Option 1
The pupil is readily upset
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 upset | nsubj |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 upset | cop |
| 4 | readily | readily | ADV | _ | 5 upset | advmod |
| 5 | upset | upset | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | the pupil | readily, upset property | tree rules |
Option 2
The pupil acquires knowledge rapidly
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 | 3 acquires | nsubj |
| 3 | acquires | acquire | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | knowledge | knowledge | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 acquires | obj |
| 5 | rapidly | rapidly | ADV | _ | 3 acquires | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | acquire | present | the pupil | knowledge | rapidly property | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knowledge=Theme |
Option 3
The pupil is easily instructed
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 instructed | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 instructed | aux:pass |
| 4 | easily | easily | ADV | _ | 5 instructed | advmod |
| 5 | instructed | instruct | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | instruct speech: other | present · passive | the pupil | easily property | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
The pupil fails to pay attention
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 | 3 fails | nsubj |
| 3 | fails | fail | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 pay | mark |
| 5 | pay | pay | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 fails | xcomp |
| 6 | attention | attention | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 pay | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | fail | present | the pupil | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 2 | not pay | to-infinitive | the pupil not said here | attention | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent attention=Asset |
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/e3/