Exam question 1 · Promises to friends and to yourself

Identify the principal reason for which a promise made to oneself is frequently more difficult to keep than a promise made to another.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, promise · What happens: identify, make, be, keep · To what, where: principal reason, promise

This is exam question 1 of lesson 359 «Promises to friends and to yourself» 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	15 difficult	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 promise	det
8	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 difficult	nsubj
9	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 promise	acl
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 oneself	case
11	oneself	oneself	PRON	PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	9 made	obl
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 difficult	cop
13	frequently	frequently	ADV	_	14 more	advmod
14	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	15 difficult	advmod
15	difficult	difficult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	acl:relcl
16	to	to	PART	_	17 keep	mark
17	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 difficult	csubj
18	than	than	ADP	_	20 promise	case
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	20 promise	det
20	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 keep	obl
21	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	20 promise	acl
22	to	to	ADP	_	23 another	case
23	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	21 made	obl
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	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	make	participle		a promise not said here	to oneself	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
3	is	present	a promise		for the principal reason; difficult property	tree rules
4	keep	to-infinitive			than a promise	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
5	make	participle		a promise not said here	to another	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset

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

It is enforced by law

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 enforced	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 enforced	aux:pass
3	enforced	enforce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 law	case
5	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 enforced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enforce	present · passive	law	It					vn enforce-63 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It is invariably of greater magnitude than any promise made to another person

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	6 magnitude	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 magnitude	cop
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	6 magnitude	advmod
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 magnitude	case
5	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 magnitude	amod
6	magnitude	magnitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	than	than	ADP	_	9 promise	case
8	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	9 promise	det
9	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 magnitude	nmod
10	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 promise	acl
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 person	case
12	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	13 person	det
13	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 made	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					of greater magnitude; than any promise; invariably property	tree rules
2	make	participle		any promise not said here				to another person	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset

Option 3

It is not a genuine commitment

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	6 commitment	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 commitment	cop
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 commitment	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 commitment	det
5	genuine	genuine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 commitment	amod
6	commitment	commitment	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is a	present	It	a genuine commitment					tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

No external party verifies or enforces it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	3 party	det
2	external	external	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 party	amod
3	party	party	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 verifies	nsubj
4	verifies	verify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	or	or	CCONJ	_	6 enforces	cc
6	enforces	enforce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 verifies	conj
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 enforces	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	verify	present	no external party						vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	enforce	present	no external party not said here	party					vn enforce-63 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/359-promises-to-friends-and-to-yourself/e1/