Exam question 4 · Accidents told too late

Ascertain the most probable outcome of the burial of the fragments of a broken garden ornament.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, break, bury · To what, where: probable outcome, fragments

This is exam question 4 of lesson 343 «Accidents told too late» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 outcome	det
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 probable	advmod
4	probable	probable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 outcome	amod
5	outcome	outcome	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 burial	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 burial	det
8	burial	burial	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 outcome	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 fragments	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 fragments	det
11	fragments	fragment	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 burial	nmod
12	of	of	ADP	_	16 ornament	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 ornament	det
14	broken	break	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 ornament	amod
15	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 ornament	compound
16	ornament	ornament	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 fragments	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the probable outcome of the burial of the fragments of a broken garden ornament	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent outcome=Topic
2	break	participle			vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient
3	bury			the fragments of a broken garden ornament	nom burial «event transitive»: of=patient

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

The fragments are never discovered once they are buried in soil

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fragments	det
2	fragments	fragment	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 discovered	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 discovered	aux:pass
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 discovered	advmod
5	discovered	discover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	once	once	SCONJ	_	9 buried	mark
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 buried	nsubj:pass
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 buried	aux:pass
9	buried	bury	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 discovered	advcl
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 soil	case
11	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 buried	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not discover	present · passive		the fragments					vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic
2	bury	present · passive		fragments = fragment		soil			vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in soil=Destination

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The fragments are commonly discovered at a later date

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fragments	det
2	fragments	fragment	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 discovered	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 discovered	aux:pass
4	commonly	commonly	ADV	_	5 discovered	advmod
5	discovered	discover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	at	at	ADP	_	9 date	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 date	det
8	later	late	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	9 date	amod
9	date	date	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 discovered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	discover	present · passive		the fragments		a later date		commonly property	vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic

Option 3

The ornament is thereby restored

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ornament	det
2	ornament	ornament	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 restored	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 restored	aux:pass
4	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	5 restored	advmod
5	restored	restore	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	restore	present · passive		the ornament				thereby property	vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: subject=Theme

Option 4

The owner is thereby compensated

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 compensated	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 compensated	aux:pass
4	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	5 compensated	advmod
5	compensated	compensate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	compensate	present · passive		the owner				thereby property	vn equip-13.4.2-1-1 «NP.theme V NP»: subject=Recipient

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/343-accidents-told-too-late/e4/