Exam question 4 · Pocket money, saving and spending

Ascertain the reason for which scammers request gift cards.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, scammers · What happens: ascertain, request · To what, where: reason, gift cards

This is exam question 4 of lesson 261 «Pocket money, saving and spending» 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 request	obl
6	scammers	scammer	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 request	nsubj
7	request	request	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
8	gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 cards	compound
9	cards	card	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 request	obj
10	.	.	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	request	present	scammers	gift cards				for the reason	vn beg-58.2 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent card=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

Gift cards earn the sender interest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cards	compound
2	cards	card	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 earn	nsubj
3	earn	earn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 interest	det
5	sender	sender	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 interest	compound
6	interest	interest	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 earn	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	earn	present	Gift cards	the sender interest					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent interest=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Money on gift cards is very hard to trace or recover

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 hard	nsubj
2	on	on	ADP	_	4 cards	case
3	gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cards	compound
4	cards	card	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Money	nmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 hard	cop
6	very	very	ADV	_	7 hard	advmod
7	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	to	to	PART	_	9 trace	mark
9	trace	trace	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 hard	xcomp
10	or	or	CCONJ	_	11 recover	cc
11	recover	recover	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 trace	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	Money on gift cards	hard property	tree rules
2	trace	to-infinitive	Money on gift cards not said here		vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	recover	infinitive	Money on gift cards not said here		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Gift cards are required by law

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cards	compound
2	cards	card	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 required	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 required	aux:pass
4	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 law	case
6	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 required	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present · passive	law	Gift cards					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Precondition

Option 4

Gift cards are cheaper than money

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cards	compound
2	cards	card	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 cheaper	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 cheaper	cop
4	cheaper	cheap	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	than	than	ADP	_	6 money	case
6	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cheaper	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Gift cards					than money; cheap 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/261-pocket-money-saving-and-spending/e4/