Exam question 4 · Speaking up, saying no and growing up

Ascertain the principal reason for which a child should not be silent about bullying.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, child · What happens: ascertain, not be · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 4 of lesson 215 «Speaking up, saying no and growing up» 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 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 silent	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 child	det
8	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 silent	nsubj
9	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 silent	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 silent	advmod
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 silent	cop
12	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	parataxis
13	about	about	ADP	_	14 bullying	case
14	bullying	bullying	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 silent	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	not is	should	a child					for the principal reason; about bullying; silent 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

Telling invariably causes more bullying

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 causes	csubj
2	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	1 Telling	advmod
3	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 bullying	advmod
5	bullying	bullying	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 causes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	gerund						invariably property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	cause	present	Telling	bullying					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition bullying=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Bullies rely upon silence to continue

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Bullies	bully	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 rely	nsubj
2	rely	rely	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	4 silence	case
4	silence	silence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 rely	obl
5	to	to	PART	_	6 continue	mark
6	continue	continue	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 rely	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rely	present	Bullies					upon silence	vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	continue	to-infinitive	Bullies not said here						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Bullying ceases sooner if it is ignored

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Bullying	bullying	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ceases	nsubj
2	ceases	cease	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	sooner	soon	ADV	Degree=Cmp	2 ceases	advmod
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 ignored	mark
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 ignored	nsubj:pass
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 ignored	aux:pass
7	ignored	ignore	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 ceases	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cease	present	Bullying					soon property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	ignore a condition, not said to happen	present · passive		Bullying					vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4

Adults are not permitted to intervene in it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 permitted	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 permitted	aux:pass
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 permitted	advmod
4	permitted	permit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 intervene	mark
6	intervene	intervene	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 permitted	xcomp
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 it	case
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 intervene	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not permit	present · passive		Adults					vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality
2	intervene not said to happen	to-infinitive				it			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/215-speaking-up-saying-no-and-growing-up/e4/