Exam question 4 · Walking on the pavement and crossing roads

Ascertain the reason for which a small child is held on the side away from the traffic.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, hold · To what, where: reason, small child, side

This is exam question 4 of lesson 266 «Walking on the pavement and crossing roads» 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	10 held	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 child	det
7	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 child	amod
8	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 held	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 held	aux:pass
10	held	hold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl:relcl
11	on	on	ADP	_	13 side	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 side	det
13	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 held	obl
14	away	away	ADV	_	10 held	advmod
15	from	from	ADP	_	17 traffic	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 traffic	det
17	traffic	traffic	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 away	obl
18	.	.	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	hold	present · passive		a small child		the side		for the reason; away property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme on side=Location

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

Small children walk more slowly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 children	amod
2	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 walk	nsubj
3	walk	walk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 slowly	advmod
5	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	3 walk	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	walk	present	Small children					slowly property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It keeps the child out of the puddles that collect along the kerb

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 keeps	nsubj
2	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 child	det
4	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 keeps	obj
5	out	out	ADP	_	8 puddles	case
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 puddles	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 puddles	det
8	puddles	puddle	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 keeps	obl
9	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 collect	nsubj
10	collect	collect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 puddles	acl:relcl
11	along	along	ADP	_	13 kerb	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 kerb	det
13	kerb	kerb	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 collect	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	present	It	the child		the puddles			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent child=Theme out puddle=Location
2	collect	present	the puddles					along the kerb	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Small children may dart into the road

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 children	amod
2	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 dart	nsubj
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 dart	aux
4	dart	dart	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	into	into	ADP	_	7 road	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 road	det
7	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dart	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dart	may	Small children			the road			vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into road=Destination

Option 4

It is required only at night

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	3 required	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 required	aux:pass
3	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	6 night	advmod
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 night	case
6	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 required	obl

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

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/266-walking-and-crossing-roads/e4/