Exam question 1 · Lies that do real harm

Identify the principal reason why false alarms are harmful, as illustrated by "The Boy Who Cried Wolf".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, false alarms, Boy · What happens: identify, be, illustrate, cry · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 1 of lesson 197 «Lies that do real harm» 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	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	9 harmful	advmod
6	false	false	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 alarms	amod
7	alarms	alarm	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 harmful	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 harmful	cop
9	harmful	harmful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	acl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 illustrated	punct
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 illustrated	mark
12	illustrated	illustrate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 harmful	csubj
13	by	by	ADP	_	16 Boy	case
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 Boy	punct
15	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 Boy	det
16	Boy	Boy	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 illustrated	obl:agent
17	Who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	18 Cried	nsubj
18	Cried	cry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 Boy	acl:relcl
19	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	Number=Sing	18 Cried	flat
20	"	"	PUNCT	_	19 Wolf	punct
21	.	.	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	is	present	false alarms		harmful property	tree rules
3	illustrate	participle				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	cry speech: express in a quote	past	the Boy			vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They make it harder to be believed when help is truly needed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 make	nsubj
2	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 make	obj
4	harder	hard	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 make	xcomp
5	to	to	PART	_	7 believed	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 believed	aux:pass
7	believed	believe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 harder	advcl
8	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	12 needed	advmod
9	help	help	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 needed	nsubj:pass
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 needed	aux:pass
11	truly	truly	ADV	_	12 needed	advmod
12	needed	need	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 make	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	make	present	They	it	hard property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product
2	believe	to-infinitive · passive	They not said here			vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»
3	need	present · passive		help	truly property	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme

Option 2

They make wolves come to the village more often than before

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 make	nsubj
2	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	wolves	wolf	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 make	obj
4	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 make	xcomp
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 village	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 village	det
7	village	village	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 come	obl
8	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	9 often	advmod
9	often	often	ADV	_	2 make	advmod
10	than	than	ADP	_	11 before	case
11	before	before	ADV	_	9 often	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	They	wolves				often property	tree rules
2	come	infinitive	wolves not said here			the village			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to village=Initial_Location

Option 3

They are harmless as long as they are said only for fun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 harmless	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 harmless	cop
3	harmless	harmless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	as	as	ADV	_	5 long	advmod
5	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	3 harmless	advmod
6	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 said	mark
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 said	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 said	aux:pass
9	said	say	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 long	advcl
10	only	only	ADV	_	12 fun	advmod
11	for	for	ADP	_	12 fun	case
12	fun	fun	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 said	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	They					harmless, long property	tree rules
2	say speech: assert	present · passive		they				for fun	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic

Option 4

They help people practise for real dangers in the future

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 help	nsubj
2	help	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 help	obj
4	practise	practise	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 help	xcomp
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 dangers	case
6	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 dangers	amod
7	dangers	danger	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 practise	obl
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 future	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 future	det
10	future	future	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 practise	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	present	They	people					vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent people=Beneficiary clause=Theme
2	practise	infinitive	people not said here			the future		for real dangers	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/everyday/197-harmful-lies/e1/