Exam question 3 · April Fools' Day and how magic tricks work

In respect of performances purporting to demonstrate mind-reading, select the response consistent with the established facts.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: performances, you · What happens: purport, demonstrate, select, establish, respect · To what, where: mind reading, response, respect, performances

This is exam question 3 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	In	in	ADP	_	2 respect	case
2	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 select	obl
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 performances	case
4	performances	performance	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 respect	nmod
5	purporting	purport	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 performances	acl
6	to	to	PART	_	7 demonstrate	mark
7	demonstrate	demonstrate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 purporting	xcomp
8	mind	mind	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 reading	compound
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	8 mind	punct
10	reading	reading	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 demonstrate	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 respect	punct
12	select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 response	det
14	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 select	obj
15	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 response	amod
16	with	with	ADP	_	19 facts	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 facts	det
18	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	19 facts	amod
19	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 consistent	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	purport	gerund	performances not said here			tree rules
2	demonstrate	to-infinitive	performances not said here	mind reading		vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot reading=Topic
3	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	respect of performances	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
4	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
5	respect			performances		nom respect «cognition 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

They demonstrate a genuine ability possessed by few persons

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 demonstrate	nsubj
2	demonstrate	demonstrate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 ability	det
4	genuine	genuine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 ability	amod
5	ability	ability	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 demonstrate	obj
6	possessed	possess	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 ability	acl
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 persons	case
8	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 persons	amod
9	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 possessed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	demonstrate	present	They	a genuine ability					vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot ability=Topic
2	possess	participle		a genuine ability not said here				by few persons	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot

Option 2

They have been confirmed by numerous scientific trials conducted at major universities

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 confirmed	nsubj:pass
2	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 confirmed	aux
3	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 confirmed	aux:pass
4	confirmed	confirm	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	8 trials	case
6	numerous	numerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 trials	amod
7	scientific	scientific	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 trials	amod
8	trials	trial	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 confirmed	obl
9	conducted	conduct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 trials	acl
10	at	at	ADP	_	12 universities	case
11	major	major	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 universities	amod
12	universities	university	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 conducted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confirm	present · perfect · passive	numerous scientific trials	They					vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot subject=Topic
2	conduct	participle		numerous scientific trials not said here		major universities			vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent at university=Destination

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

They rely upon clues and guesses, and no genuine ability has been shown in fair tests

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 rely	nsubj
2	rely	rely	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	4 clues	case
4	clues	clue	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 rely	obl
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 guesses	cc
6	guesses	guess	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 clues	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 shown	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 shown	cc
9	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	11 ability	det
10	genuine	genuine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 ability	amod
11	ability	ability	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 shown	nsubj:pass
12	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 shown	aux
13	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	14 shown	aux:pass
14	shown	show	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 rely	conj
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 tests	case
16	fair	fair	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 tests	amod
17	tests	test	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 shown	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rely	present	They					upon clues and guesses	vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	show	present · perfect · passive		no genuine ability				in fair tests	vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: subject=Patient in test=Topic

Option 4

They operate by means of detectable brain waves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 operate	nsubj
2	operate	operate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 means	case
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 operate	ccomp
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 waves	case
6	detectable	detectable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 waves	amod
7	brain	brain	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 waves	compound
8	waves	wave	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	operate	present	They						tree rules
2	mean	present	They not said here					of detectable brain waves	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: 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/e3/