Exam question 4 · Phones, visiting friends, presents and thank-you notes

Ascertain the reason for which scammers telephone children.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, scammers · What happens: ascertain, telephone · To what, where: reason, children

This is exam question 4 of lesson 222 «Phones, visiting friends, presents and thank-you notes» 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	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 telephone	obl
6	scammers	scammer	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 telephone	nsubj
7	telephone	telephone	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
8	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 telephone	obj
9	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	telephone speech: other	present	scammers		children			for the reason	vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent child=Recipient

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

To learn when a house is empty or to obtain money and passwords

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 learn	mark
2	learn	learn	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	7 empty	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 house	det
5	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 empty	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 empty	cop
7	empty	empty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 learn	advcl
8	or	or	CCONJ	_	10 obtain	cc
9	to	to	PART	_	10 obtain	mark
10	obtain	obtain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 empty	conj
11	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 obtain	obj
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 passwords	cc
13	passwords	password	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 money	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	learn	to-infinitive				vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	a house		empty property	tree rules
3	obtain	to-infinitive	a house not said here	money and passwords		vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset money=Theme

Option 2

To invite children to school events

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 invite	mark
2	invite	invite	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 invite	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 events	case
5	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 events	compound
6	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 invite	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	invite	to-infinitive			children			to school events	vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Recipient

Option 3

To check that phones are working

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 check	mark
2	check	check	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 working	mark
4	phones	phone	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 working	nsubj
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 working	aux
6	working	work	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 check	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	check	to-infinitive							vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	work	present · progressive	phones						vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

To offer free gifts that are genuine

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 offer	mark
2	offer	offer	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	free	free	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 gifts	amod
4	gifts	gift	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 offer	obj
5	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 genuine	nsubj
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 genuine	cop
7	genuine	genuine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 gifts	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	offer	to-infinitive		free gifts					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent gift=Theme
2	is	present	free gifts					genuine property	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/222-phones-visits-presents-and-thank-you-notes/e4/