Exam question 2 · Soft words for hard things: drinking and drugs

Identify the meaning of "substance misuse" as employed by official bodies in the United Kingdom.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, employ, mean · To what, where: meaning, substance misuse

This is exam question 2 of lesson 30 «Soft words for hard things: drinking and drugs» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 misuse	case
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 misuse	punct
6	substance	substance	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 misuse	compound
7	misuse	misuse	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 misuse	punct
9	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 employed	mark
10	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	advcl
11	by	by	ADP	_	13 bodies	case
12	official	official	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 bodies	amod
13	bodies	body	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 employed	obl
14	in	in	ADP	_	17 Kingdom	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 Kingdom	det
16	United	United	PROPN	_	17 Kingdom	flat
17	Kingdom	Kingdom	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 bodies	nmod
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of substance misuse		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	employ	participle	you not said here		by official bodies in the United Kingdom	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	mean			substance misuse		nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient

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 · ← Mova's choice

The wastage of foodstuffs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wastage	det
2	wastage	wastage	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 foodstuffs	case
4	foodstuffs	foodstuff	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 wastage	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	waste		foodstuffs						nom wastage «process intransitive»: of=agent

Option 2

An error committed in a science lesson

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 error	det
2	error	error	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	committed	commit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 error	acl
4	in	in	ADP	_	7 lesson	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 lesson	det
6	science	science	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 lesson	compound
7	lesson	lesson	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 committed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	commit	participle		a error not said here		a science lesson			vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in lesson=Destination

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The harmful use of drugs or alcohol

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 use	det
2	harmful	harmful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 use	amod
3	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 drugs	case
5	drugs	drug	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 use	nmod
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 alcohol	cc
7	alcohol	alcohol	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 drugs	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use			drugs or alcohol					nom use «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The improper use of adhesives

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 use	det
2	improper	improper	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 use	amod
3	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 adhesives	case
5	adhesives	adhesive	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 use	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use			adhesives					nom use «act transitive»: of=patient

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/30-drinking-and-drugs/e2/