Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: age and looks and weight

Whereas an American text describes a person as "homely", determine which of the following most accurately characterises that person.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: American text, you · What happens: describe, determine, follow, characteris · To what, where: person

This is exam question 4 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	Whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	5 describes	mark
2	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 text	det
3	American	American	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 text	amod
4	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 describes	nsubj
5	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 determine	advcl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 person	det
7	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 describes	obj
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 homely	mark
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 homely	punct
10	homely	homely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 person	acl
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 homely	punct
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 determine	punct
13	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
14	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	20 characterises	nsubj
15	of	of	SCONJ	_	20 characterises	mark
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 characterises	det
17	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	20 characterises	csubj
18	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	19 accurately	advmod
19	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	20 characterises	advmod
20	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 determine	ccomp
21	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	22 person	det
22	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 characterises	obj
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	13 determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	describe	present	a American text	a person		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent person=Theme
2	determine	imperative	you not said here			vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	characteris	present		that person	accurately 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

Warm and hospitable

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 hospitable	cc
3	hospitable	hospitable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Warm	conj

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

Option 2

Fond of remaining at home in the evenings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fond	fond	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	3 remaining	mark
3	remaining	remain	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Fond	acl
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 home	case
5	home	home	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 remaining	obl
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 evenings	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 evenings	det
8	evenings	evening	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 remaining	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	gerund	Fond not said here			home	evening		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at home=Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Plain or unattractive in appearance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Plain	plain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	or	or	CCONJ	_	3 unattractive	cc
3	unattractive	unattractive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Plain	conj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 appearance	case
5	appearance	appearance	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Plain	obl

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

Option 4

Skilled in domestic tasks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Skilled	skill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
2	in	in	ADP	_	4 tasks	case
3	domestic	domestic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 tasks	amod
4	tasks	task	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Skilled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	skill	participle				domestic tasks			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/9-age-looks-and-size/e4/