Exam question 2 · Greetings, goodbyes, please and thank you, and table manners

Identify the principal reason for which chopsticks should not be left standing upright in rice.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, chopsticks · What happens: identify, not leave, stand · To what, where: principal reason, chopsticks, rice

This is exam question 2 of lesson 296 «Greetings, goodbyes, please and thank you, and table manners» 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	11 left	obl
7	chopsticks	chopstick	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 left	nsubj:pass
8	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 left	aux
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 left	advmod
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 left	aux:pass
11	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	standing	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 left	xcomp
13	upright	upright	ADV	_	12 standing	advmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	15 rice	case
15	rice	rice	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 standing	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	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	not leave	should · passive		chopsticks		for the principal reason	tree rules
3	stand	gerund	chopsticks not said here		rice	upright property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in rice=Location

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

It signals that one requires a fork

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 signals	nsubj
2	signals	signal	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 requires	nsubj
4	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 requires	nsubj
5	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 signals	acl:relcl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 fork	det
7	fork	fork	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 requires	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	signals	a fork					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme fork=Precondition

Option 2

It is liable to break or bend the chopsticks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 liable	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 liable	cop
3	liable	liable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 break	mark
5	break	break	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 liable	xcomp
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 bend	cc
7	bend	bend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 break	conj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 chopsticks	det
9	chopsticks	chopstick	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 bend	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	It		liable property	tree rules
2	break	to-infinitive				vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient
3	bend	infinitive		the chopsticks		vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent chopstick=Material

Option 3

It causes the rice to turn cold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 causes	nsubj
2	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 rice	det
4	rice	rice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 causes	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 turn	mark
6	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 causes	advcl
7	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 turn	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	It	the rice					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition rice=Patient
2	turn	to-infinitive						cold property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

In some Asian cultures it resembles a funeral custom

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	4 cultures	case
2	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	4 cultures	det
3	Asian	Asian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cultures	amod
4	cultures	culture	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 resembles	obl
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 resembles	nsubj
6	resembles	resemble	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 custom	det
8	funeral	funeral	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 custom	compound
9	custom	custom	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 resembles	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	resemble	present	it	a funeral custom		some Asian cultures			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/296-greetings-goodbyes-and-table-manners/e2/