Exam question 4 · Quiet places and solemn moments

Ascertain the reason for which persons speak quietly in a hospital waiting room.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, persons · What happens: ascertain, speak · To what, where: reason, waiting room · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 224 «Quiet places and solemn moments» 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 speak	obl
6	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 speak	nsubj
7	speak	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
8	quietly	quietly	ADV	_	7 speak	advmod
9	in	in	ADP	_	13 room	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 room	det
11	hospital	hospital	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 waiting	compound
12	waiting	waiting	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 room	compound
13	room	room	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 speak	obl
14	.	.	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	speak speech: other	present	persons			a waiting room		for the reason; quietly property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=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

The walls there are very thin and carry every sound

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 walls	det
2	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 thin	nsubj
3	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	2 walls	expl
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 thin	cop
5	very	very	ADV	_	6 thin	advmod
6	thin	thin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 carry	cc
8	carry	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 thin	conj
9	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	10 sound	det
10	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 carry	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the walls					thin property	tree rules
2	carry	present	the walls not said here	every sound					vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sound=Theme

Option 2

Doctors cannot hear the telephone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Doctors	doctor	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 hear	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 hear	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 hear	advmod
4	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 telephone	det
6	telephone	telephone	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hear	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not hear	can	Doctors	the telephone					vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer telephone=Stimulus

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Patients there may be ill or worried

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Patients	patient	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 ill	nsubj
2	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	1 Patients	expl
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 ill	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 ill	cop
5	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 worried	cc
7	worried	worried	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 ill	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	may	Patients					ill property	tree rules
2	be		Patients not said here						tree rules

Option 4

Quiet makes the wait shorter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Quiet	quiet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 makes	nsubj
2	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 wait	det
4	wait	wait	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 makes	obj
5	shorter	short	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 makes	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	Quiet	the wait				short property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset wait=Product

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.

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