Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupi…

Determine the meaning of the expression "fell short" as employed in respect of a team's attempt to reach a final.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, team · What happens: determine, fall, employ, reach, mean, respect · To what, where: meaning, respect, final, expression, attempt · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 35 «Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupidity and madness» 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	Determine	determine	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 Determine	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 expression	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 expression	det
6	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 fell	punct
8	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Determine	parataxis
9	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 fell	xcomp
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 fell	punct
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 employed	mark
12	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 fell	advcl
13	in	in	ADP	_	14 respect	case
14	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 employed	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	19 attempt	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 team	det
17	team	team	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 attempt	nmod:poss
18	's	's	PART	_	17 team	case
19	attempt	attempt	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 respect	nmod
20	to	to	PART	_	21 reach	mark
21	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 attempt	acl
22	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	23 final	det
23	final	final	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 reach	obj
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the expression			tree rules
2	fall in a quote	past				short property	vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	employ	participle			respect of a team's attempt		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	reach	to-infinitive		a final			vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent final=Theme
5	mean			the expression			nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient
6	respect			a team's attempt			nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=patient
7	attempt		a team				nom attempt «act transitive»: poss=agent

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 right answer

The team failed to attain its objective

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 team	det
2	team	team	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 failed	nsubj
3	failed	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 attain	mark
5	attain	attain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 failed	xcomp
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 objective	nmod:poss
7	objective	objective	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 attain	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fail	past	the team						vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	not attain	to-infinitive	the team not said here	team's objective					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent objective=Theme

Option 2

The team attained its objective with ease

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attain	past	the team	team's objective				with ease	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent objective=Theme

Option 3

The team fell to the ground during the final

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 team	det
2	team	team	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fell	nsubj
3	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 ground	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 ground	det
6	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fell	obl
7	during	during	ADP	_	9 final	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 final	det
9	final	final	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fell	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fall	past	the team				during the final	to the ground	vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=Theme

Option 4

The team was of insufficient physical stature

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 team	det
2	team	team	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 stature	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 stature	cop
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 stature	case
5	insufficient	insufficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 stature	amod
6	physical	physical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 stature	amod
7	stature	stature	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the team					of insufficient physical stature	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/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/e4/