Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: age and looks and weight

Identify the meaning most accurately conveyed by the expression "follically challenged".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, convey, challenge · To what, where: meaning, expression

This is exam question 1 of lesson 9 «Soft words for hard things: age and looks and weight» 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	_	12 challenged	punct
11	follically	follically	ADV	_	12 challenged	advmod
12	challenged	challenge	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 expression	acl:relcl
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 challenged	punct
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	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
3	challenge in a quote	participle		the expression not said here	follically property	tree rules

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

Possessing excessive hair

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Possessing	possess	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 hair	amod
3	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Possessing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	gerund		excessive hair					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot hair=Theme

Option 2

Experiencing intellectual difficulty

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Experiencing	experience	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	intellectual	intellectual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 difficulty	amod
3	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Experiencing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	experience	gerund		intellectual difficulty					vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer difficulty=Stimulus

Option 3

Unable to follow instructions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	to	to	PART	_	3 follow	mark
3	follow	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Unable	xcomp
4	instructions	instruction	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 follow	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	to-infinitive		instructions					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent instruction=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Bald

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Bald	bald	ADJ	Degree=Pos	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/9-age-looks-and-size/e1/