Exam question 2 · April Fools' Day and how magic tricks work

Identify the meaning of the term misdirection as employed in conjuring.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, employ, conjure, mean · To what, where: meaning, term misdirection

This is exam question 2 of lesson 279 «April Fools' Day and how magic tricks work» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 misdirection	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 misdirection	det
6	term	term	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 misdirection	compound
7	misdirection	misdirection	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 employed	mark
9	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	advcl
10	in	in	SCONJ	_	11 conjuring	mark
11	conjuring	conjure	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 employed	advcl
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the term misdirection	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	employ	participle	you not said here		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	conjure	gerund	you not said here		vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	mean			the term misdirection	nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient

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

The deliberate selection of the wrong card by the magician to confuse the audience

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 selection	det
2	deliberate	deliberate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 selection	amod
3	selection	selection	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 card	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 card	det
6	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 card	amod
7	card	card	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 selection	nmod
8	by	by	ADP	_	10 magician	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 magician	det
10	magician	magician	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 selection	nmod
11	to	to	PART	_	12 confuse	mark
12	confuse	confuse	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 selection	acl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 audience	det
14	audience	audience	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 confuse	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confuse	to-infinitive		the audience					vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent audience=Patient
2	select		the magician	the wrong card					nom selection «act transitive»: of=patient by=agent

Option 2

The giving of false directions to the theatre

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 giving	det
2	giving	give	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 directions	case
4	false	false	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 directions	amod
5	directions	direction	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 giving	obl
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 theatre	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 theatre	det
8	theatre	theatre	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 giving	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	gerund			the theatre			of false directions	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to theatre=Recipient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The steering of the audience's attention away from the secret move

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 steering	det
2	steering	steering	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 away	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 attention	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 audience	det
5	audience	audience	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 attention	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 audience	case
7	attention	attention	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 steering	nmod
8	away	away	ADV	_	root	root
9	from	from	ADP	_	12 move	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 move	det
11	secret	secret	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 move	amod
12	move	move	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 away	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	steer			the audience's attention					nom steering «act transitive»: of=patient
2	attend		the audience						nom attention «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

The practice of performing in poor light

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 practice	det
2	practice	practice	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	SCONJ	_	4 performing	mark
4	performing	perform	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 practice	acl
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 light	case
6	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 light	amod
7	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 performing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perform	gerund	the practice not said here			poor light			vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=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/279-april-fools-and-magic-tricks/e2/