Exam question 2 · Going up and down stairs safely

Identify the principal reason for which a person traversing a staircase is advised to maintain contact with the handrail.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, person · What happens: identify, traverse, advise, maintain · To what, where: principal reason, staircase, person, contact

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1 «Going up and down stairs safely» of the everyday 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	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 advised	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 person	det
8	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 advised	nsubj:pass
9	traversing	traverse	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 person	acl
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 staircase	det
11	staircase	staircase	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 traversing	obj
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 advised	aux:pass
13	advised	advise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
14	to	to	PART	_	15 maintain	mark
15	maintain	maintain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 advised	xcomp
16	contact	contact	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 maintain	obj
17	with	with	ADP	_	19 handrail	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 handrail	det
19	handrail	handrail	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 contact	nmod
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	traverse	gerund	a person not said here	a staircase		vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme staircase=Co-Theme
3	advise speech: other	present · passive		a person	for the principal reason	vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP how S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
4	maintain not said to happen	to-infinitive	a person not said here	contact	with the handrail	vn declare-29.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent contact=Theme

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

It affords a means of arresting the body should the person trip or slip

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 affords	nsubj
2	affords	afford	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 affords	ccomp
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 arresting	mark
6	arresting	arrest	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 means	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 body	det
8	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 trip	nsubj
9	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 trip	aux
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 person	det
11	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 trip	compound
12	trip	trip	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 arresting	ccomp
13	or	or	CCONJ	_	14 slip	cc
14	slip	slip	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 trip	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	afford	present	It	tree rules
2	mean	present	a	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	arrest	gerund	a not said here	vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	trip	should	the body	tree rules

Option 2

It prevents the staircase from moving under load

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 prevents	nsubj
2	prevents	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 staircase	det
4	staircase	staircase	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 prevents	obj
5	from	from	SCONJ	_	6 moving	mark
6	moving	move	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 prevents	advcl
7	under	under	ADP	_	8 load	case
8	load	load	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 moving	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	present	It	the staircase					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer staircase=Theme
2	move	gerund				load			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme under load=Trajectory

Option 3

It obliges the person to ascend at a greater speed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 obliges	nsubj
2	obliges	oblige	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 person	det
4	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 obliges	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 ascend	mark
6	ascend	ascend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 obliges	advcl
7	at	at	ADP	_	10 speed	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 speed	det
9	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	10 speed	amod
10	speed	speed	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 ascend	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	oblige	present	It	the person					vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Patient
2	ascend	to-infinitive				a greater speed			vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

It reduces the wear sustained by the treads of the stairs over many years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 reduces	nsubj
2	reduces	reduce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 wear	det
4	wear	wear	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reduces	obj
5	sustained	sustain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 wear	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 treads	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 treads	det
8	treads	tread	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 sustained	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 stairs	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 stairs	det
11	stairs	stair	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 treads	nmod
12	over	over	ADP	_	14 years	case
13	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 years	amod
14	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 sustained	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	reduce	present	It	the wear			vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer wear=Patient
2	sustain	participle		the wear not said here	year	by the treads of the stairs	vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent
3	tread		the stairs				nom tread «act intransitive»: of=agent

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.

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