Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness

Identify the meaning most accurately conveyed by the expression "thick as two short planks".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, convey · To what, where: meaning

This is exam question 1 of lesson 36 «Soft words for hard things: 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	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	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 accurately	advmod
5	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	6 conveyed	advmod
6	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 meaning	acl
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 expression	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 expression	det
9	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conveyed	obl
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 thick	punct
11	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 expression	amod
12	as	as	ADP	_	15 planks	case
13	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	15 planks	nummod
14	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 planks	amod
15	planks	plank	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 thick	obl
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 thick	punct
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the meaning					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	convey	participle		the meaning not said here				by the expression; accurately property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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

Exceedingly robust

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	_	2 robust	advmod
2	robust	robust	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Exceedingly unintelligent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	_	2 unintelligent	advmod
2	unintelligent	unintelligent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Exceedingly discourteous

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	_	2 discourteous	advmod
2	discourteous	discourteous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

Exceedingly diminutive

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	_	2 diminutive	advmod
2	diminutive	diminutive	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/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/e1/