Test 1 · ★ · Rumours and gossip

A boy in Edinburgh hears from a cousin's friend that a classmate was arrested. Why should he doubt it?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: boy · What happens: hear, arrest, doubt · To what, where: friend, classmate

This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 202 «Rumours and gossip» 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

Sentence 1: A boy in Edinburgh hears from a cousin's friend that a classmate was arrested.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 boy	det
2	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hears	nsubj
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 Edinburgh	case
4	Edinburgh	Edinburgh	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 boy	nmod
5	hears	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	from	from	ADP	_	10 friend	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 cousin	det
8	cousin	cousin	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 friend	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 cousin	case
10	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hears	obl
11	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 arrested	nsubj:pass
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 classmate	det
13	classmate	classmate	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 arrested	nsubj:pass
14	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 arrested	aux:pass
15	arrested	arrest	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 friend	acl:relcl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 hears	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hear	present	a boy in Edinburgh					from a cousin's friend	vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent from friend=Source
2	arrest	past · passive		a cousin's friend					vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

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.

Sentence 2: Why should he doubt it?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 doubt	advmod
2	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 doubt	aux
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 doubt	nsubj
4	doubt	doubt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 doubt	obj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 doubt	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	doubt	should	boy	classmate					vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

The options

Option 1

Cousins' friends always tell the truth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cousins	cousin	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 friends	nmod:poss
2	'	's	PART	_	1 Cousins	case
3	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 tell	nsubj
4	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	5 tell	advmod
5	tell	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 truth	det
7	truth	truth	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tell	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	present	Cousins's friends	the truth				always property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent truth=Recipient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Stories change as they pass along, and he has no evidence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 change	nsubj
2	change	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	SCONJ	_	5 pass	mark
4	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 pass	nsubj
5	pass	pass	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 change	advcl
6	along	along	ADV	_	5 pass	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 has	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 has	cc
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 has	nsubj
10	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 change	parataxis
11	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	12 evidence	det
12	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 has	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	change	present	Stories			vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	pass along	present	Stories = story		along property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	have	present	he	no evidence		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent evidence=Patient

Option 3

He should believe it if it sounds exciting and comes from someone he knows

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 believe	nsubj
2	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 believe	aux
3	believe	believe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 believe	obj
5	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 sounds	mark
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 sounds	nsubj
7	sounds	sound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 believe	advcl
8	exciting	exciting	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 sounds	xcomp
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 comes	cc
10	comes	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 sounds	conj
11	from	from	ADP	_	12 someone	case
12	someone	someone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	10 comes	obl
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 knows	nsubj
14	knows	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 someone	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	believe	should	He	it			vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus
2	sound a condition, not said to happen	present	it			exciting property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus
3	come	present			someone		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from someone=Initial_Location
4	know	present	he				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Arrests are always reported at school

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Arrests	arrest	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 reported	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reported	aux:pass
3	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	4 reported	advmod
4	reported	report	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 school	case
6	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reported	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	report	present · passive		Arrests		school		always property	vn prosecute-33.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

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/202-rumours-and-gossip/t1/