Exam question 4 · Classroom rules and homework

Ascertain the proper manner of communicating with a classmate who speaks little English.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, proper manner, classmate · What happens: ascertain, communicate, speak · To what, where: proper manner, little English · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 254 «Classroom rules and homework» 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 manner	det
3	proper	proper	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 manner	amod
4	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 communicating	mark
6	communicating	communicate	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 manner	acl
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 classmate	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 classmate	det
9	classmate	classmate	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 communicating	obl
10	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 speaks	nsubj
11	speaks	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 classmate	acl:relcl
12	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 English	amod
13	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 speaks	obj
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the proper manner		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent manner=Topic
2	communicate	gerund	the proper manner not said here		with a classmate	vn correspond-36.1 «NP V PP.co-agent PP.theme whether S»: agent=Agent with classmate=Co-Agent
3	speak speech: other	present	a classmate	little English		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

Ignoring him until he learns

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ignoring	ignore	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 learns	csubj
2	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Ignoring	obj
3	until	until	SCONJ	_	5 learns	mark
4	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 learns	nsubj
5	learns	learn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ignore	gerund		him = he					vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
2	learn	present	he						vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Speaking only through other children

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Speaking	speak	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	only	only	ADV	_	5 children	advmod
3	through	through	ADP	_	5 children	case
4	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 children	amod
5	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Speaking	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	gerund		other children					tree rules

Option 3

Shouting the words more loudly and repeating them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shouting	shout	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 words	det
3	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Shouting	obj
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 loudly	advmod
5	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	1 Shouting	advmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 repeating	cc
7	repeating	repeat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Shouting	conj
8	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 repeating	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shout speech: express	gerund		the words				loudly property	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Topic
2	repeat	gerund		words = word					vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Speaking slowly with gestures and pictures, patiently

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Speaking	speak	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	1 Speaking	advmod
3	with	with	ADP	_	4 gestures	case
4	gestures	gesture	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Speaking	obl
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 pictures	cc
6	pictures	picture	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 gestures	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Speaking	punct
8	patiently	patiently	ADV	_	1 Speaking	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	gerund						with gestures and pictures; patiently, slowly property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with gesture=Co-Agent

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/254-classroom-rules-and-homework/e4/