Test 4 · ★ · April Fools' Day and how magic tricks work

Why can a magician's «free choice» of card not really be free?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: magician, free choice · What happens: choice, not be

This is test 4 · ★ 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	8 choice	advmod
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 choice	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 magician	det
4	magician	magician	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 choice	nsubj
5	's	's	PART	_	4 magician	case
6	«	«	PUNCT	_	8 choice	punct
7	free	free	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 choice	amod
8	choice	choice	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 free	nsubj
9	»	»	PUNCT	_	8 choice	punct
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 card	case
11	card	card	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 choice	nmod
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	15 free	advmod
13	really	really	ADV	_	15 free	advmod
14	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	15 free	cop
15	free	free	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	15 free	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	choice in a quote	can	a magician					of card	tree rules
2	not is	infinitive	free choice					free 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 · ✓ the right answer

Magicians can force a card while it looks like you chose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Magicians	magician	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 force	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 force	aux
3	force	force	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 card	det
5	card	card	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 force	obj
6	while	while	SCONJ	_	8 looks	mark
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 looks	nsubj
8	looks	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 force	advcl
9	like	like	SCONJ	_	11 chose	mark
10	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	11 chose	nsubj
11	chose	choose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 looks	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	force	can	Magicians	a card	vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent card=Recipient
2	look	present	it		vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus
3	choose	past	you		vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Every card in the deck is secretly the same, so any choice is his

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	2 card	det
2	card	card	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 same	nsubj
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 deck	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 deck	det
5	deck	deck	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 card	nmod
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 same	cop
7	secretly	secretly	ADV	_	9 same	advmod
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 same	det
9	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 choice	punct
11	so	so	ADV	_	13 choice	advmod
12	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	13 choice	det
13	choice	choice	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 same	conj
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 his	cop
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 same	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	every card in the deck					same, secretly property	tree rules
2	is a	present		his = he					tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The audience is told the answer first

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 audience	det
2	audience	audience	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 told	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 told	aux:pass
4	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 answer	det
6	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 told	obj
7	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	4 told	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	present · passive		the audience				first property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient answer=Topic

Option 4

Cards are chosen by the lighting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cards	card	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 chosen	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 chosen	aux:pass
3	chosen	choose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 lighting	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 lighting	det
6	lighting	lighting	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 chosen	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	choose	present · passive	the lighting	Cards					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

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/t4/