Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers

Whereas a pupil is reported to be "approaching standard" in the United States, determine what is in fact being communicated.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · What happens: report, be, determine, communicate · To what, where: pupil, United States, fact

This is exam question 4 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	Whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	5 reported	mark
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 pupil	det
3	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 reported	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 reported	aux:pass
5	reported	report	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	9 approaching	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 approaching	cop
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 approaching	punct
9	approaching	approach	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 reported	advcl
10	standard	standard	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 approaching	obj
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 standard	punct
12	in	in	ADP	_	15 States	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 States	det
14	United	United	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 States	amod
15	States	State	PROPN	Number=Plur	9 approaching	obl
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 determine	punct
17	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 approaching	conj
18	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	21 fact	nsubj
19	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	21 fact	cop
20	in	in	ADP	_	21 fact	case
21	fact	fact	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 determine	ccomp
22	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	23 communicated	aux:pass
23	communicated	communicate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	21 fact	acl
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 reported	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	report	present · passive	a pupil			vn prosecute-33.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	is in a quote	to-infinitive		the United States	approach property	tree rules
3	determine	present				vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	is	present		fact		tree rules
5	communicate	gerund · passive	fact not said here			vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»

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

The pupil has been awarded a distinction

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 awarded	nsubj:pass
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 awarded	aux
4	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 awarded	aux:pass
5	awarded	award	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 distinction	det
7	distinction	distinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 awarded	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	award	present · perfect · passive		the pupil					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: subject=Goal distinction=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The pupil has not yet reached the required level

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	6 reached	nsubj:pass
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 reached	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 reached	advmod
5	yet	yet	ADV	_	6 reached	advmod
6	reached	reach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 level	det
8	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 level	amod
9	level	level	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reached	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not reach	present · perfect · passive		the pupil			yet		vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary level=Theme
2	require	participle							vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The pupil has exceeded the required level

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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 level	det
6	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 level	amod
7	level	level	NOUN	Number=Sing	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
2	require	participle							vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The pupil is physically nearing a building

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 nearing	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 nearing	aux
4	physically	physically	ADV	_	5 nearing	advmod
5	nearing	near	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 building	det
7	building	building	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 nearing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	near	present · progressive	the pupil	a building				physically property	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/e4/