Exam question 1 · Excuses and the lies that grow

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning a deception which has repeatedly escaped discovery.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, established facts · What happens: select, be, establish, concern, escape · To what, where: response, deception

This is exam question 1 of lesson 337 «Excuses and the lies that grow» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 consistent	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 consistent	cop
6	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	acl:relcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 facts	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 facts	det
9	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 facts	amod
10	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 consistent	obl
11	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 facts	acl
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 deception	det
13	deception	deception	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obj
14	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	17 escaped	nsubj:pass
15	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 escaped	aux
16	repeatedly	repeatedly	ADV	_	17 escaped	advmod
17	escaped	escape	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 deception	acl:relcl
18	discovery	discovery	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 escaped	obj
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	is	present	the response		with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
3	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
4	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	a deception		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus deception=Experiencer
5	escape	present · perfect · passive		a deception	repeatedly 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 · ← Mova's choice

Prior success guarantees immunity from any consequence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 success	amod
2	success	success	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 guarantees	nsubj
3	guarantees	guarantee	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	immunity	immunity	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 guarantees	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 consequence	case
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 consequence	det
7	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 guarantees	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	guarantee	present	Prior success	immunity		any consequence			vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition immunity=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Prior success affords no assurance that the deception will continue to escape discovery

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 success	amod
2	success	success	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 affords	nsubj
3	affords	afford	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 assurance	det
5	assurance	assurance	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 affords	obj
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 continue	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 deception	det
8	deception	deception	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 continue	nsubj
9	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 continue	aux
10	continue	continue	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 affords	advcl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 escape	mark
12	escape	escape	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 continue	xcomp
13	discovery	discovery	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 escape	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	afford	present	Prior success	no assurance	tree rules
2	continue	future	the deception		vn continue-55.3 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	escape	to-infinitive	the deception not said here	discovery	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme discovery=Initial_Location

Option 3

A deception undiscovered on three occasions becomes truthful

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 deception	det
2	deception	deception	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 becomes	nsubj
3	undiscovered	undiscover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 deception	acl
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 occasions	case
5	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 occasions	nummod
6	occasions	occasion	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 undiscovered	obl
7	becomes	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	truthful	truthful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 becomes	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	undiscover	participle		a deception not said here		three occasions			tree rules
2	become	present	a deception					truthful property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 4

Repeated success renders the deception permissible, since no harm has thereby been occasioned

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Repeated	repeat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 success	amod
2	success	success	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 renders	nsubj
3	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 deception	det
5	deception	deception	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 renders	obj
6	permissible	permissible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 renders	xcomp
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 occasioned	punct
8	since	since	SCONJ	_	14 occasioned	mark
9	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	10 harm	det
10	harm	harm	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 occasioned	nsubj:pass
11	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 occasioned	aux
12	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	14 occasioned	advmod
13	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	14 occasioned	aux:pass
14	occasioned	occasion	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 renders	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	repeat	participle				vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	render	present	Repeated success	the deception	permissible property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deception=Theme
3	occasion	present · perfect · passive		no harm	thereby property	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/337-excuses-and-the-lies-that-grow/e1/