Test 8 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers

"she says he 'finds it hard to stay on task' — what task, he never even starts" — what is the report saying?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: she, he, task, report · What happens: say, find, stay, not start, be · To what, where: it, task, report · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 16 «Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school. 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	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 says	punct
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 says	nsubj
3	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 finds	nsubj
5	'	'	PUNCT	_	6 finds	punct
6	finds	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 says	ccomp
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 finds	obj
8	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 finds	xcomp
9	to	to	PART	_	10 stay	mark
10	stay	stay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 hard	xcomp
11	on	on	ADP	_	12 task	case
12	task	task	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 stay	obl
13	'	'	PUNCT	_	12 task	punct
14	—	-	PUNCT	_	15 what	punct
15	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	6 finds	parataxis
16	task	task	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 what	nsubj
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 starts	punct
18	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 starts	nsubj
19	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	21 starts	advmod
20	even	even	ADV	_	21 starts	advmod
21	starts	start	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 says	conj
22	"	"	PUNCT	_	21 starts	punct
23	—	-	PUNCT	_	27 report	punct
24	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	27 report	nsubj
25	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	27 report	cop
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	27 report	det
27	report	report	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 says	ccomp
28	saying	say	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	27 report	acl
29	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert in a quote	present	she				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	find in a quote	present	he	it		hard property	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic
3	stay in a quote	to-infinitive			task		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on task=Location
4	not start in a quote	present	task				vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
5	is a	present		the report			tree rules
6	say speech: assert	gerund	the report not said here				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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

He has too many tasks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 many	advmod
4	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 tasks	amod
5	tasks	task	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 has	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	He	many tasks					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=Patient

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

He wastes time in class

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wastes	nsubj
2	wastes	waste	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 wastes	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 class	case
5	class	class	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 wastes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	waste	present	He			class	time		vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

He cannot find his classroom

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 find	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 find	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 find	advmod
4	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 classroom	nmod:poss
6	classroom	classroom	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 find	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not find	can	He	his classroom					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent classroom=Topic

Option 4

He finishes too early

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 finishes	nsubj
2	finishes	finish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 early	advmod
4	early	early	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 finishes	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	finish	present	He					early property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

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/t8/