Exam question 3 · Standing by a friend

Given that a pupil is wrongly accused of having instigated a fight, ascertain the most appropriate conduct of a pupil who witnessed the incident.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, pupil · What happens: give, accuse, instigate, ascertain, witness, conduct · To what, where: pupil, fight, appropriate conduct, incident

This is exam question 3 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	Given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 ascertain	advcl
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 accused	mark
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 pupil	det
4	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 accused	nsubj:pass
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 accused	aux:pass
6	wrongly	wrongly	ADV	_	7 accused	advmod
7	accused	accuse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Given	advcl
8	of	of	SCONJ	_	10 instigated	mark
9	having	have	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 instigated	aux
10	instigated	instigate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	7 accused	xcomp
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 fight	det
12	fight	fight	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 instigated	obj
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 ascertain	punct
14	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 conduct	det
16	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	17 appropriate	advmod
17	appropriate	appropriate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 conduct	amod
18	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 ascertain	obj
19	of	of	ADP	_	21 pupil	case
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 pupil	det
21	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 conduct	nmod
22	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	23 witnessed	nsubj
23	witnessed	witness	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	21 pupil	acl:relcl
24	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 incident	det
25	incident	incident	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 witnessed	obj
26	.	.	PUNCT	_	14 ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	give	participle	you not said here			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	accuse	present · passive		a pupil	wrongly property	tree rules
3	instigate	gerund · perfect		a fight		vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition fight=Patient
4	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the appropriate conduct of a pupil		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conduct=Topic
5	witness	past	a pupil	the incident		vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent incident=Beneficiary
6	conduct			a pupil		nom conduct «act 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

To remain silent so as to avoid involvement

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 remain	mark
2	remain	remain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 avoid	advcl
3	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 remain	xcomp
4	so	so	ADV	_	7 avoid	advmod
5	as	as	SCONJ	_	7 avoid	mark
6	to	to	PART	_	7 avoid	mark
7	avoid	avoid	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	involvement	involvement	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 avoid	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	to-infinitive						silent property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	avoid	to-infinitive		involvement					vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent involvement=Location

Option 2

To accuse a different pupil without evidence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 accuse	mark
2	accuse	accuse	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 pupil	det
4	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 pupil	amod
5	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 accuse	obj
6	without	without	ADP	_	7 evidence	case
7	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 accuse	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accuse	to-infinitive		a different pupil				without evidence	vn suspect-81 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent pupil=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

To give a truthful account to the head teacher

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 give	mark
2	give	give	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 account	det
4	truthful	truthful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 account	amod
5	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 give	obj
6	to	to	ADP	_	9 teacher	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 teacher	det
8	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 teacher	compound
9	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 give	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	to-infinitive		a truthful account	the head teacher				vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent account=Theme to teacher=Recipient

Option 4

To accept responsibility on the accused pupil's behalf

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 accept	mark
2	accept	accept	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	responsibility	responsibility	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 accept	obj
4	on	on	ADP	_	9 behalf	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 pupil	det
6	accused	accuse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 pupil	amod
7	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 behalf	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 pupil	case
9	behalf	behalf	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 accept	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accept	to-infinitive		responsibility		the accused pupil's behalf			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent responsibility=Theme
2	accuse	participle							vn suspect-81 «NP V PP.theme S_ING»: agent=Agent

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/370-standing-by-a-friend/e3/