Test 3 · ★ · April Fools' Day and how magic tricks work

Why does a good magician tell you to watch his face as he talks?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: he · What happens: do, tell, watch, talk · To what, where: good magician, you, face · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 · ★ of lesson 279 «April Fools' Day and how magic tricks work» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school. 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	2 does	advmod
2	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 tell	advcl
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 magician	det
4	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 magician	amod
5	magician	magician	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 does	obj
6	tell	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 tell	iobj
8	to	to	PART	_	9 watch	mark
9	watch	watch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 tell	xcomp
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 face	nmod:poss
11	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 watch	obj
12	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 talks	mark
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 talks	nsubj
14	talks	talk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 watch	advcl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 tell	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	do	present		a good magician		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent magician=Eventuality
2	tell speech: assert	present			you	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic
3	watch not said to happen	to-infinitive		his face		vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent face=Theme
4	talk	present	he			vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

Because he wants a photo

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	3 wants	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 wants	nsubj
3	wants	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 photo	det
5	photo	photo	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wants	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	present	he	a photo					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot photo=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Because his face holds the secret and the answer to the trick

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 holds	mark
2	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 face	nmod:poss
3	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 holds	nsubj
4	holds	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 secret	det
6	secret	secret	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 holds	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 answer	cc
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 answer	det
9	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 secret	conj
10	to	to	ADP	_	12 trick	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 trick	det
12	trick	trick	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 holds	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	present	his face	the secret and the answer				to the trick	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent secret=Theme

Option 3

Because looking at hands is rude

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	2 looking	mark
2	looking	look	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 rude	csubj
3	at	at	ADP	_	4 hands	case
4	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 looking	obl
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 rude	cop
6	rude	rude	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	gerund						at hands	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at hand=Theme
2	is	present	looking					rude property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

To draw your attention away from his hands

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 draw	mark
2	draw	draw	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 attention	nmod:poss
4	attention	attention	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 draw	obj
5	away	away	ADV	_	2 draw	advmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 hands	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 hands	nmod:poss
8	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 away	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	draw	to-infinitive		your attention				away property	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent attention=Theme
2	attend		your						nom attention «cognition intransitive»: poss=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/t3/