Test 9 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers
A teacher tells a parent, "Josh has made some progress in reading." The parent frowns. Why?
Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: teacher, parent · What happens: tell, make, frown · To what, where: parent, Josh · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 9 · ★ 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
Sentence 1: A teacher tells a parent, "Josh has made some progress in reading."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 teacher | det |
| 2 | teacher | teacher | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 tells | nsubj |
| 3 | tells | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 parent | det |
| 5 | parent | parent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 tells | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 made | punct |
| 7 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 made | punct |
| 8 | Josh | Josh | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 made | nsubj:pass |
| 9 | has | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 10 made | aux |
| 10 | made | make | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 tells | parataxis |
| 11 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 12 progress | det |
| 12 | progress | progress | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 made | obj |
| 13 | in | in | ADP | _ | 14 reading | case |
| 14 | reading | reading | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 progress | nmod |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 tells | punct |
| 16 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 tells | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | present | a teacher | a parent | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Agent parent=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | make in a quote | present · perfect · passive | Josh | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: subject=Beneficiary progress=Product |
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: The parent frowns.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 parent | det |
| 2 | parent | parent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 frowns | nsubj |
| 3 | frowns | frown | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 frowns | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | frown | present | the parent | vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
Sentence 3: Why?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | root | root |
| 2 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 1 Why | punct |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
The options
Option 1
It means Josh needs glasses
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 | 2 means | nsubj |
| 2 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | Josh | Josh | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 needs | nsubj |
| 4 | needs | need | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 means | ccomp |
| 5 | glasses | glass | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 needs | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | It | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | need | present | Josh | glasses | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot glass=Theme |
Option 2
It means Josh skipped reading
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 | 2 means | nsubj |
| 2 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | Josh | Josh | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 skipped | nsubj |
| 4 | skipped | skip | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 means | ccomp |
| 5 | reading | reading | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 skipped | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | It | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | skip | past | Josh | reading | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reading=Agent |
Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
It often means very little progress
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 means | nsubj |
| 2 | often | often | ADV | _ | 3 means | advmod |
| 3 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | very | very | ADV | _ | 5 little | advmod |
| 5 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 progress | amod |
| 6 | progress | progress | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 means | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | It | little progress | often property | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent progress=Topic |
Option 4
It means Josh is top of the class
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 | 2 means | nsubj |
| 2 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | Josh | Josh | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 top | compound |
| 4 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 top | cop |
| 5 | top | top | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 means | obj |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 8 class | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 class | det |
| 8 | class | class | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 top | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | It | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | is a | present | Josh top | of the class | 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/t9/