Exam question 4 · Pranks: harmless fun or real harm?

Ascertain the proper course of action when a prank has gone wrong and its target is upset.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, prank, target · What happens: ascertain, go, be, target · To what, where: proper course

This is exam question 4 of lesson 204 «Pranks: harmless fun or 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 course	det
3	proper	proper	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 course	amod
4	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 action	case
6	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 course	nmod
7	when	when	SCONJ	_	11 gone	mark
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 prank	det
9	prank	prank	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 gone	nsubj
10	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 gone	aux
11	gone	go	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	1 Ascertain	advcl
12	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 gone	xcomp
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 upset	cc
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 target	nmod:poss
15	target	target	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 upset	nsubj
16	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 upset	cop
17	upset	upset	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 wrong	conj
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the proper course of action		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent course=Topic
2	go	present · perfect	a prank		wrong property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	is	present	prank's target		upset property	tree rules
4	target		prank			nom target «communication 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

To film the target's reaction

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 film	mark
2	film	film	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 target	det
4	target	target	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reaction	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 target	case
6	reaction	reaction	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 film	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	film	to-infinitive		the target's reaction					vn transcribe-25.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reaction=Theme
2	react		the target						nom reaction «process intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

To repeat the prank to show it was a joke

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 repeat	mark
2	repeat	repeat	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 prank	det
4	prank	prank	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 repeat	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 show	mark
6	show	show	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 repeat	advcl
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 joke	nsubj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 joke	cop
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 joke	det
10	joke	joke	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 show	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	repeat	to-infinitive		the prank	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prank=Eventuality
2	show	to-infinitive			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is a	past	prank	a joke	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

To desist, apologise and render assistance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 desist	mark
2	desist	desist	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 apologise	advcl
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 apologise	punct
4	apologise	apologise	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 render	cc
6	render	render	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	4 apologise	conj
7	assistance	assistance	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 render	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	desist	to-infinitive	you not said here		vn refrain-69 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	apologise speech: apologize	imperative	you not said here		tree rules
3	render	infinitive	you not said here	assistance	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent assistance=Theme

Option 4

To depart before an adult arrives

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 depart	mark
2	depart	depart	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	before	before	SCONJ	_	6 arrives	mark
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 adult	det
5	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 arrives	nsubj
6	arrives	arrive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 depart	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	depart	to-infinitive							vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	arrive	present	a adult						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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/204-pranks/e4/