Exam question 4 · Balconies, blades, batteries and strange bottles

Ascertain the principal reason for which medicine is never described to children as sweets.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, not describe · To what, where: principal reason, medicine

This is exam question 4 of lesson 218 «Balconies, blades, batteries and strange bottles» 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	10 described	obl
7	medicine	medicine	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 described	nsubj:pass
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 described	aux:pass
9	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	10 described	advmod
10	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
11	to	to	ADP	_	12 children	case
12	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 described	obl
13	as	as	ADP	_	14 sweets	case
14	sweets	sweet	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 described	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 describe	present · passive		medicine				for the principal reason; to children; as sweets	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Theme as sweet=Attribute

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

Medicine tastes considerably better when it is so described

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Medicine	medicine	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tastes	nsubj
2	tastes	taste	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	considerably	considerably	ADV	_	4 better	advmod
4	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 tastes	xcomp
5	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	9 described	advmod
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 described	nsubj:pass
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 described	aux:pass
8	so	so	ADV	_	9 described	advmod
9	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 better	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	taste	present	Medicine					good property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus
2	describe	present · passive		Medicine					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Theme

Option 2

Medicine and sweets contain the same ingredients

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Medicine	medicine	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 contain	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 sweets	cc
3	sweets	sweet	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Medicine	conj
4	contain	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ingredients	det
6	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 ingredients	amod
7	ingredients	ingredient	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 contain	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	present	Medicine and sweets	the same ingredients					vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot ingredient=Theme

Option 3

It is a description required by law

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 description	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 description	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 description	det
4	description	description	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 description	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 law	case
7	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 required	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a description					tree rules
2	require	participle		a description not said here				by law	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Children may consume it believing it to be sweets

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 consume	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 consume	aux
3	consume	consume	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 consume	obj
5	believing	believe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 consume	advcl
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 believing	obj
7	to	to	PART	_	9 sweets	mark
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 sweets	cop
9	sweets	sweet	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 believing	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	consume	may	Children	it	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Asset
2	believe	gerund	Children not said here	it	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus
3	is a	to-infinitive		sweets	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/218-balconies-blades-batteries-and-bottles/e4/