Exam question 2 · Good pressure, good and bad secrets, and owning up

Identify the principal reason for which an accidental breakage is to be reported to an adult without delay.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, report · To what, where: principal reason, accidental breakage

This is exam question 2 of lesson 285 «Good pressure, good and bad secrets, and owning up» 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	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 reported	obl
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 breakage	det
8	accidental	accidental	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 breakage	amod
9	breakage	breakage	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 reported	nsubj:pass
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 reported	aux:pass
11	to	to	PART	_	13 reported	mark
12	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	13 reported	aux:pass
13	reported	report	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
14	to	to	ADP	_	16 adult	case
15	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 adult	det
16	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 reported	obl
17	without	without	ADP	_	18 delay	case
18	delay	delay	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 reported	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	report	present · passive	you not said here	a accidental breakage				for the principal reason; to a adult; without delay	vn prosecute-33.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Patient for which=Theme

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

Adults never notice breakages unaided

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 notice	nsubj
2	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	3 notice	advmod
3	notice	notice	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	breakages	breakage	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 notice	obj
5	unaided	unaided	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 notice	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not notice	present	Adults	breakages				unaided property	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer breakage=Stimulus

Option 2

Delay is forbidden only on school days

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Delay	delay	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 forbidden	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 forbidden	aux:pass
3	forbidden	forbid	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	7 days	advmod
5	on	on	ADP	_	7 days	case
6	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 days	compound
7	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 forbidden	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forbid	present · passive		Delay			day		vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3

Reporting it promptly transfers the blame to another person

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Reporting	report	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 transfers	csubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Reporting	obj
3	promptly	promptly	ADV	_	4 transfers	advmod
4	transfers	transfer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 blame	det
6	blame	blame	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 transfers	obj
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 person	case
8	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	9 person	det
9	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 transfers	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	report	gerund		it					vn prosecute-33.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient
2	transfer	present	Reporting	the blame	another person			promptly property	vn contribute-13.2-2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent blame=Theme to person=Recipient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Owning up early usually makes the trouble smaller

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Owning	own	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 makes	csubj
2	up	up	ADP	_	1 Owning	compound:prt
3	early	early	ADV	Degree=Pos	1 Owning	advmod
4	usually	usually	ADV	_	5 makes	advmod
5	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 trouble	det
7	trouble	trouble	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 makes	obj
8	smaller	small	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 makes	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	own up	gerund						early property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot
2	make	present	Owning	the trouble				small, usually property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset trouble=Product

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.

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