Exam question 2 · Traffic lights, crossings and road signs

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the crossing button?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: crossing button

This is exam question 2 of lesson 267 «Traffic lights, crossings and road signs» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 button	det
10	crossing	crossing	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 button	compound
11	button	button	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the crossing button				of the following statements; accurately property	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 · ← Mova's choice

It summons a police officer

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 summons	nsubj
2	summons	summon	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 officer	det
4	police	police	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 officer	compound
5	officer	officer	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 summons	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	summon	present	It	a police officer					vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent officer=Recipient

Option 2

It changes the lights at once if pressed repeatedly

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 changes	nsubj
2	changes	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 lights	det
4	lights	light	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 changes	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 once	case
6	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	2 changes	obl
7	if	if	SCONJ	_	8 pressed	mark
8	pressed	press	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 changes	advcl
9	repeatedly	repeatedly	ADV	_	8 pressed	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	change	present	It	the lights					vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Patient
2	press a condition, not said to happen	participle						repeatedly property	vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It informs the lights that someone is waiting; one press suffices

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 informs	nsubj
2	informs	inform	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 lights	det
4	lights	light	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 informs	obj
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 waiting	mark
6	someone	someone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	8 waiting	nsubj
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 waiting	aux
8	waiting	wait	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 informs	advcl
9	;	;	PUNCT	_	12 suffices	punct
10	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 press	nummod
11	press	press	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 suffices	nsubj
12	suffices	suffice	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 informs	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	inform speech: other	present	It	the lights	vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent light=Recipient
2	wait	present · progressive	someone		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	suffice	present	one press		tree rules

Option 4

It switches off the traffic lights

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 switches	nsubj
2	switches	switch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	off	off	ADP	_	6 lights	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 lights	det
5	traffic	traffic	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lights	compound
6	lights	light	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 switches	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	switch off	present	It	the traffic lights					vn convert-26.6.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Patient

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/267-traffic-lights-and-signs/e2/