Exam question 1 · Fire at home

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the principal cause of death in house fires?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, cause · To what, where: principal cause, house fires, death

This is exam question 1 of lesson 34 «Fire at home» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 cause	det
10	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 cause	amod
11	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 death	case
13	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 cause	nmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 fires	case
15	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 fires	compound
16	fires	fire	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 cause	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	the principal cause of death	house fires	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	cause		death	house fires		nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient in=place

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

Most such deaths are occasioned by burns from the flames

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 deaths	amod
2	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 deaths	amod
3	deaths	death	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 occasioned	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 occasioned	aux:pass
5	occasioned	occasion	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 burns	case
7	burns	burn	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 occasioned	obl
8	from	from	ADP	_	10 flames	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 flames	det
10	flames	flame	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 occasioned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occasion	present · passive	burns	Most such deaths		the flames			tree rules

Option 2

Most such deaths are occasioned by the water used to extinguish the fire

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 deaths	amod
2	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 deaths	amod
3	deaths	death	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 occasioned	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 occasioned	aux:pass
5	occasioned	occasion	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 water	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 water	det
8	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 occasioned	obl
9	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 water	acl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 extinguish	mark
11	extinguish	extinguish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 used	advcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 fire	det
13	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 extinguish	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	occasion	present · passive	the water	Most such deaths	tree rules
2	use	participle		the water not said here	vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	extinguish	to-infinitive		the fire	vn remedy-45.7-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent fire=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Most such deaths are occasioned by smoke rather than by flames

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 deaths	amod
2	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 deaths	amod
3	deaths	death	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 occasioned	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 occasioned	aux:pass
5	occasioned	occasion	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 smoke	case
7	smoke	smoke	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 occasioned	obl
8	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	5 occasioned	advmod
9	than	than	ADP	_	8 rather	fixed
10	by	by	ADP	_	11 flames	case
11	flames	flame	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 occasioned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occasion	present · passive	smoke	Most such deaths				by flames	tree rules

Option 4

Most such deaths are occasioned by falling walls

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 deaths	amod
2	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 deaths	amod
3	deaths	death	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 occasioned	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 occasioned	aux:pass
5	occasioned	occasion	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 walls	case
7	falling	fall	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 walls	amod
8	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 occasioned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occasion	present · passive	falling walls	Most such deaths					tree rules
2	fall	gerund							vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=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.

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