Test 2 · ★★ · A guest at the table, and manners on the phone

Why should children never tell an unknown caller that they are home alone?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: children · What happens: not tell, be · To what, where: unknown caller · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 2 · ★★ of lesson 128 «A guest at the table, and manners on the phone» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school. 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	5 tell	advmod
2	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 tell	aux
3	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 tell	nsubj
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 tell	advmod
5	tell	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 caller	det
7	unknown	unknown	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 caller	amod
8	caller	caller	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tell	obj
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	12 home	mark
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 home	nsubj
11	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 home	cop
12	home	home	ADV	_	5 tell	ccomp
13	alone	alone	ADV	_	12 home	advmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 tell	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not tell speech: assert	should	children	a unknown caller					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent caller=Recipient
2	is	present	children = child					alone, home 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

Because it costs more to call children

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	3 costs	mark
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 costs	nsubj
3	costs	cost	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 costs	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 call	mark
6	call	call	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 costs	advcl
7	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 call	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cost	present	it	more					vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme more=Value
2	call	to-infinitive			children				vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent child=Recipient

Option 2

Because callers cannot hear children well

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	5 hear	mark
2	callers	caller	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 hear	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 hear	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 hear	advmod
5	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 hear	obj
7	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	5 hear	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not hear	can	callers	children				well property	vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer child=Stimulus

Option 3

Because it is boring for the caller

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 boring	mark
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 boring	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 boring	cop
4	boring	boring	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 caller	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 caller	det
7	caller	caller	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 boring	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	it					for the caller; boring property	tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Keeping that private keeps them safe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Keeping	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 keeps	csubj
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	3 private	mark
3	private	private	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Keeping	xcomp
4	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 keeps	obj
6	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 keeps	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	gerund						private property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	keep	present	Keeping	them = they				safe property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

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/everyday/128-guest-at-the-table-and-the-phone/t2/