Test 1 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes
News: "A computer glitch left 2,000 passengers stuck at the airport." What caused the trouble?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: computer glitch · What happens: leave, stick, cause · To what, where: 2,000 passengers, airport, trouble
This is test 1 of lesson 33 «Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes» 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: News: "A computer glitch left 2,000 passengers stuck at the airport."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | News | news | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 1 News | punct |
| 3 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 glitch | punct |
| 4 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 glitch | det |
| 5 | computer | computer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 glitch | compound |
| 6 | glitch | glitch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 News | conj |
| 7 | left | leave | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 6 glitch | acl |
| 8 | 2,000 | 2000 | NUM | NumForm=Digit NumType=Card | 9 passengers | nummod |
| 9 | passengers | passenger | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 left | obj |
| 10 | stuck | stick | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 9 passengers | acl |
| 11 | at | at | ADP | _ | 13 airport | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 airport | det |
| 13 | airport | airport | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 stuck | obl |
| 14 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 glitch | punct |
| 15 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 glitch | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | leave in a quote | participle | a computer glitch not said here | 2,000 passengers | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent passenger=Theme | ||||
| 2 | stick in a quote | participle | 2,000 passengers not said here | the airport | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme at airport=Destination |
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: What caused the trouble?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 2 caused | nsubj |
| 2 | caused | cause | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 trouble | det |
| 4 | trouble | trouble | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 caused | obj |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 2 caused | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | cause | past | the trouble | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition trouble=Patient |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
A strike by pilots
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 strike | det |
| 2 | strike | strike | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | by | by | ADP | _ | 4 pilots | case |
| 4 | pilots | pilot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 strike | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | strike | pilots | nom strike «act intransitive»: by=agent |
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
A fault in the computers
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 fault | det |
| 2 | fault | fault | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 5 computers | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 computers | det |
| 5 | computers | computer | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 fault | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
Too many passengers
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Too | too | ADV | _ | 2 many | advmod |
| 2 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 passengers | amod |
| 3 | passengers | passenger | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Bad weather
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bad | bad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 weather | amod |
| 2 | weather | weather | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
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/33-failure-and-mistakes/t1/