Exam question 4 · Being gentle with small animals

State the conduct expected before touching a pet belonging to another person.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, pet · What happens: state, expect, touch, belong · To what, where: conduct, pet

This is exam question 4 of lesson 288 «Being gentle with small animals» 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	State	state	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 conduct	det
3	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 State	obj
4	expected	expect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 conduct	acl
5	before	before	SCONJ	_	6 touching	mark
6	touching	touch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 expected	advcl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 pet	det
8	pet	pet	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 touching	obj
9	belonging	belong	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 pet	acl
10	to	to	ADP	_	12 person	case
11	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	12 person	det
12	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 belonging	obl
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 State	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	state speech: other	imperative	you not said here	the conduct		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent conduct=Topic
2	expect	participle		the conduct not said here		vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	touch	gerund		a pet		vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme pet=Co-Theme
4	belong	gerund	a pet not said here		to another person	vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=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

The pet may be touched provided it is small

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pet	det
2	pet	pet	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 provided	nsubj
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 touched	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 touched	aux:pass
5	touched	touch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 pet	acl:relcl
6	provided	provide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 small	nsubj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 small	cop
9	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 provided	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	touch	may · passive		the pet not said here		vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»
2	provide	past	the pet			vn ensure-99 «NP V that S»: agent=Precondition
3	is	present	pet		small property	tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The owner shall be asked first

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 owner	det
2	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 asked	nsubj
3	shall	shall	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 asked	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 asked	aux:pass
5	asked	ask	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	5 asked	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	shall · passive		the owner				first property	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient

Option 3

The pet shall be picked up quickly before it escapes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pet	det
2	pet	pet	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 picked	nsubj:pass
3	shall	shall	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 picked	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 picked	aux:pass
5	picked	pick	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	up	up	ADP	_	5 picked	compound:prt
7	quickly	quickly	ADV	_	5 picked	advmod
8	before	before	SCONJ	_	10 escapes	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 escapes	nsubj
10	escapes	escape	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 picked	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pick up	shall · passive		the pet				quickly property	vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic
2	escape	present	pet						vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The owner need be asked only for large dogs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 owner	det
2	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 asked	nsubj
3	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 owner	acl:relcl
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 asked	aux:pass
5	asked	ask	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	only	only	ADV	_	9 dogs	advmod
7	for	for	ADP	_	9 dogs	case
8	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 dogs	amod
9	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 asked	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present	the owner not said here						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot
2	ask speech: ask	infinitive · passive		the owner	large dogs				tree rules

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/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/e4/