Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers an…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises an animal described in an official notice as having been "humanely destroyed"?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, characteris, describe, destroy · To what, where: animal, official notice

This is exam question 1 of lesson 17 «Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers and animals and pets» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 animal	det
10	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 animal	acl
12	in	in	ADP	_	15 notice	case
13	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 notice	det
14	official	official	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 notice	amod
15	notice	notice	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 described	obl
16	as	as	SCONJ	_	21 destroyed	mark
17	having	have	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	21 destroyed	aux
18	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	21 destroyed	aux:pass
19	"	"	PUNCT	_	21 destroyed	punct
20	humanely	humanely	ADV	_	21 destroyed	advmod
21	destroyed	destroy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 characterises	advcl
22	"	"	PUNCT	_	21 destroyed	punct
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	a animal		of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	describe	participle	a animal not said here	a official notice		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
4	destroy in a quote	gerund · perfect · passive			humanely property	vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»

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 animal was rehoused with a family

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 rehoused	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 rehoused	aux:pass
4	rehoused	rehouse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 family	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 family	det
7	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 rehoused	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rehouse	past · passive		the animal				with a family	tree rules

Option 2

The animal was given medical treatment

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 given	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 given	aux:pass
4	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	medical	medical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 treatment	amod
6	treatment	treatment	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 given	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	past · passive		the animal					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient treatment=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The animal was killed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 killed	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 killed	aux:pass
4	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kill	past · passive		the animal					vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4

The animal was released into the wild

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 released	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 released	aux:pass
4	released	release	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	into	into	ADP	_	7 wild	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 wild	det
7	wild	wild	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 released	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	release	past · passive		the animal		the wild			vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Source

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/17-school-and-pets/e1/