Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: animals and pets and money and…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises a domestic animal described as having been "surrendered" to a shelter?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, characteris, describe, surrender · To what, where: domestic animal, shelter

This is exam question 1 of lesson 18 «Soft words for hard things: animals and pets and money and poverty» 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	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 animal	det
10	domestic	domestic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 animal	amod
11	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 animal	acl
13	as	as	SCONJ	_	17 surrendered	mark
14	having	have	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	17 surrendered	aux
15	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	17 surrendered	aux:pass
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 surrendered	punct
17	surrendered	surrender	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 described	advcl
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 surrendered	punct
19	to	to	ADP	_	21 shelter	case
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 shelter	det
21	shelter	shelter	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 surrendered	obl
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	a domestic animal		of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	describe	participle	a domestic animal not said here			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
4	surrender in a quote	gerund · perfect · passive		a shelter		vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: to shelter=Recipient

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 ceased resisting capture

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	3 ceased	nsubj
3	ceased	cease	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	resisting	resist	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 ceased	xcomp
5	capture	capture	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 resisting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cease	past	the animal						vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
2	resist	gerund	the animal not said here	capture					tree rules

Option 2

The shelter returned the animal to its owner

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shelter	det
2	shelter	shelter	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 returned	nsubj
3	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 animal	det
5	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 returned	obj
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 owner	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 owner	nmod:poss
8	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 returned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	return	past	the shelter	the animal		shelter's owner			vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent animal=Theme to owner=Destination

Option 3

The animal was apprehended by authorities

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 apprehended	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 apprehended	aux:pass
4	apprehended	apprehend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 authorities	case
6	authorities	authority	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 apprehended	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	apprehend	past · passive	authorities	the animal					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer subject=Stimulus

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The owner relinquished the animal to the shelter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 owner	det
2	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 relinquished	nsubj
3	relinquished	relinquish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 animal	det
5	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 relinquished	obj
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 shelter	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 shelter	det
8	shelter	shelter	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 relinquished	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	relinquish	past	the owner	the animal	the shelter				vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent animal=Theme to shelter=Recipient

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/18-pets-and-money/e1/