Exam question 2 · Chores and broken things

Identify the principal reason for which a houseplant ought to be watered solely when its soil is dry to the touch.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, soil, houseplant · What happens: identify, water, be, soil · To what, where: principal reason, houseplant

This is exam question 2 of lesson 111 «Chores and broken things» 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	12 watered	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 houseplant	det
8	houseplant	houseplant	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 watered	nsubj:pass
9	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 watered	aux
10	to	to	PART	_	12 watered	mark
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 watered	aux:pass
12	watered	water	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
13	solely	solely	ADV	_	12 watered	advmod
14	when	when	SCONJ	_	18 dry	mark
15	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 soil	nmod:poss
16	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 dry	nsubj
17	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 dry	cop
18	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 watered	advcl
19	to	to	ADP	_	21 touch	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 touch	det
21	touch	touch	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 dry	obl
22	.	.	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	water	ought · passive	you not said here	a houseplant	for the principal reason; solely property	vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: subject=Destination
3	is	present	houseplant's soil		to the touch; dry property	tree rules
4	soil		houseplant			nom soil «state 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 · ✓ the right answer

Excessive watering causes the roots to rot

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 watering	amod
2	watering	watering	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 causes	nsubj
3	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 roots	det
5	roots	root	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 causes	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 rot	mark
7	rot	rot	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 causes	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	Excessive watering	the roots					tree rules
2	rot	to-infinitive	the roots not said here						vn entity_specific_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Water given on a dry day evaporates at once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 evaporates	nsubj
2	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Water	acl
3	on	on	ADP	_	6 day	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 day	det
5	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 day	amod
6	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 given	obl
7	evaporates	evaporate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	at	at	ADP	_	9 once	case
9	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	7 evaporates	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	participle		Water not said here			day		vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	evaporate	present	Water						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3

Daily watering makes the plant grow too tall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Daily	daily	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 watering	amod
2	watering	watering	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	nsubj
3	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 plant	det
5	plant	plant	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	obj
6	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 makes	xcomp
7	too	too	ADV	_	8 tall	advmod
8	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 makes	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	Daily watering	the plant				tall property	tree rules
2	grow	present	the plant not said here						vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Dry soil is the plant's sole source of nourishment

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 soil	amod
2	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 source	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 source	cop
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 plant	det
5	plant	plant	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 source	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 plant	case
7	sole	sole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 source	amod
8	source	source	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 nourishment	case
10	nourishment	nourishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 source	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Dry soil	the plant's sole source				of nourishment	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.

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