Exam question 4 · Wasting food and water

State the practice most consistent with the avoidance of waste at a self-service meal.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: state, avoid · To what, where: practice, waste, service meal

This is exam question 4 of lesson 360 «Wasting food and water» 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	State	state	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 practice	det
3	practice	practice	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 State	obj
4	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 consistent	advmod
5	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 practice	amod
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 avoidance	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 avoidance	det
8	avoidance	avoidance	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consistent	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 waste	case
10	waste	waste	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 avoidance	nmod
11	at	at	ADP	_	16 meal	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 meal	det
13	self	self	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 service	compound
14	-	-	PUNCT	_	13 self	punct
15	service	service	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 meal	compound
16	meal	meal	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 avoidance	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 State	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	state speech: other	imperative	you not said here	the practice					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent practice=Topic
2	avoid			waste		a service meal			nom avoidance «act transitive»: of=patient at=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

The taking of the maximum available portion on the first visit to the table

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 taking	det
2	taking	taking	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 portion	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 portion	det
5	maximum	maximum	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 portion	amod
6	available	available	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 portion	amod
7	portion	portion	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 taking	nmod
8	on	on	ADP	_	11 visit	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 visit	det
10	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	11 visit	amod
11	visit	visit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 taking	nmod
12	to	to	ADP	_	14 table	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 table	det
14	table	table	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 taking	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take			the maximum available portion		the first visit		to the table	nom taking «act transitive»: of=patient on=place to=obl

Option 2

The taking of dessert alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 taking	det
2	taking	taking	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 dessert	case
4	dessert	dessert	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 taking	nmod
5	alone	alone	ADV	_	2 taking	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take			dessert					nom taking «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The discarding of portions found unappealing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 discarding	det
2	discarding	discarding	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 found	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 portions	case
4	portions	portion	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 discarding	nmod
5	found	find	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	unappealing	unappealing	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 found	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	find	participle · passive		the discarding of portions					vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme unappealing=Attribute

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The taking of modest portions with return for more if required

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 taking	det
2	taking	taking	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 portions	case
4	modest	modest	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 portions	amod
5	portions	portion	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 taking	nmod
6	with	with	ADP	_	7 return	case
7	return	return	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 portions	nmod
8	for	for	ADP	_	9 more	case
9	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	7 return	nmod
10	if	if	SCONJ	_	11 required	mark
11	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 taking	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	participle		the taking of modest portions with return for more not said here					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Theme
2	take			modest portions with return for more					nom taking «act transitive»: of=patient

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/360-sandwiches-taps-lights-paper-and-the-buffet/e4/