Exam question 4 · Building and making things safely

Ascertain the reason for which an adult checks a structure before anyone climbs upon it.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, adult, anyone · What happens: ascertain, check, climb · To what, where: reason, structure

This is exam question 4 of lesson 244 «Building and making things safely» 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	8 checks	obl
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 adult	det
7	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 checks	nsubj
8	checks	check	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	parataxis
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 structure	det
10	structure	structure	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 checks	obj
11	before	before	SCONJ	_	13 climbs	mark
12	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	13 climbs	nsubj
13	climbs	climb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 checks	advcl
14	upon	upon	ADP	_	15 it	case
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 climbs	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	check	present	a adult	a structure	for the reason	vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent structure=Theme for which=Attribute
3	climb	present	anyone		upon adult	vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon it=Trajectory

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

It needs to be painted first

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	2 needs	nsubj
2	needs	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	5 painted	mark
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 painted	aux:pass
5	painted	paint	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 needs	xcomp
6	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	5 painted	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present	It						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	paint not said to happen	to-infinitive · passive						first property	vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V»

Option 2

Climbing is forbidden without a ticket

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Climbing	climbing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 forbidden	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 forbidden	aux:pass
3	forbidden	forbid	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	without	without	ADP	_	6 ticket	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 ticket	det
6	ticket	ticket	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 forbidden	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forbid	present · passive		Climbing				without a ticket	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3

Adults must sign the structure

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 sign	nsubj
2	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 sign	aux
3	sign	sign	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 structure	det
5	structure	structure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sign	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sign	must	Adults	the structure					vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent structure=Destination

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It may not hold a person's weight

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 hold	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 hold	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 hold	advmod
4	hold	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 person	det
6	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 weight	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 person	case
8	weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hold	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not hold	may	It	a person's weight					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent weight=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/244-building-and-making-things/e4/