Exam question 2 · Standing by a friend

Identify the principal reason why declining to participate in an act of revenge is prudent.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, declining, revenge · What happens: identify, decline, not participate, be, act · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 370 «Standing by a friend» 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	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	15 prudent	advmod
6	declining	decline	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	15 prudent	csubj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 participate	mark
8	participate	participate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 declining	xcomp
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 act	case
10	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 act	det
11	act	act	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 participate	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 revenge	case
13	revenge	revenge	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 act	nmod
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 prudent	cop
15	prudent	prudent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Identify	parataxis
16	.	.	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	decline	gerund				vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	not participate	to-infinitive			in a act of revenge	vn cooperate-73.1-2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in act=Theme
4	is	present	declining		prudent property	tree rules
5	act		revenge			nom act «communication intransitive»: of=agent

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

Declining necessarily terminates the friendship

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Declining	decline	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 terminates	csubj
2	necessarily	necessarily	ADV	_	1 Declining	advmod
3	terminates	terminate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 friendship	det
5	friendship	friendship	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 terminates	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decline	gerund						necessarily property	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
2	terminate	present	Declining	the friendship					vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent friendship=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Revenge tends to precipitate further conflict

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Revenge	revenge	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tends	nsubj
2	tends	tend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 precipitate	mark
4	precipitate	precipitate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 tends	xcomp
5	further	far	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 conflict	advmod
6	conflict	conflict	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 precipitate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tend	present	Revenge						tree rules
2	precipitate	to-infinitive	Revenge not said here	conflict					tree rules

Option 3

Revenge invariably concludes a dispute entirely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Revenge	revenge	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 concludes	nsubj
2	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	3 concludes	advmod
3	concludes	conclude	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 dispute	det
5	dispute	dispute	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 concludes	obj
6	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	3 concludes	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conclude	present	Revenge	a dispute				entirely, invariably property	vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dispute=Theme

Option 4

Revenge is permitted solely outside school premises

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Revenge	revenge	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 permitted	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 permitted	aux:pass
3	permitted	permit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	3 permitted	advmod
5	outside	outside	ADP	_	7 premises	case
6	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 premises	compound
7	premises	premise	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 permitted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	permit	present · passive		Revenge		school premises		solely property	vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme outside premise=Location

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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