Exam question 4 · Walking away

Whereas a pupil is described as «scared» for declining to attend an arranged street fight, ascertain the comparative cost of declining.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, comparative cost · What happens: describe, decline, not attend, arrange, ascertain · To what, where: pupil, arranged street fight, comparative cost

This is exam question 4 of lesson 371 «Walking away» 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	Whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	5 described	mark
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 pupil	det
3	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 described	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 described	aux:pass
5	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	19 ascertain	advcl
6	as	as	SCONJ	_	8 scared	mark
7	«	«	PUNCT	_	8 scared	punct
8	scared	scared	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 described	advcl
9	»	»	PUNCT	_	5 described	punct
10	for	for	SCONJ	_	11 declining	mark
11	declining	decline	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	19 ascertain	advcl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 attend	mark
13	attend	attend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 declining	xcomp
14	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 fight	det
15	arranged	arrange	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 fight	amod
16	street	street	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 fight	compound
17	fight	fight	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 attend	obj
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 declining	punct
19	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 cost	det
21	comparative	comparative	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 cost	amod
22	cost	cost	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 ascertain	obj
23	of	of	SCONJ	_	24 declining	mark
24	declining	decline	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	22 cost	acl
25	.	.	PUNCT	_	19 ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	describe	present · passive		a pupil	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Theme
2	decline	gerund	you not said here		vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	not attend	to-infinitive	you not said here	a arranged street fight	vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme fight=Goal
4	arrange	participle			vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
5	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the comparative cost	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cost=Topic
6	decline	gerund	the comparative cost not said here		vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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 is penalised more severely than fighting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Declining	declining	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 penalised	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 penalised	aux:pass
3	penalised	penalis	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 severely	advmod
5	severely	severely	ADV	_	3 penalised	advmod
6	than	than	SCONJ	_	7 fighting	mark
7	fighting	fight	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 severely	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	penalis	present · passive		Declining				severely property	tree rules
2	fight	gerund							vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

The cost of declining exceeds any consequence which might follow from attending

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cost	det
2	cost	cost	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 exceeds	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 declining	case
4	declining	declining	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cost	nmod
5	exceeds	exceed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 consequence	det
7	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 exceeds	obj
8	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 follow	nsubj
9	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 follow	aux
10	follow	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 consequence	acl:relcl
11	from	from	ADP	_	12 attending	case
12	attending	attending	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 follow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	exceed	present	the cost of declining	any consequence		vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot consequence=Theme
2	follow	might	any consequence		attending	vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent from attending=Trajectory
3	cost			declining		nom cost «possession transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The cost of an insult is negligible relative to injury, punishment or police involvement

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cost	det
2	cost	cost	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 relative	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 insult	case
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 insult	det
5	insult	insult	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cost	nmod
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 relative	cop
7	negligible	negligible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 relative	amod
8	relative	relative	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
9	to	to	ADP	_	10 injury	case
10	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 relative	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 punishment	punct
12	punishment	punishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 injury	conj
13	or	or	CCONJ	_	15 involvement	cc
14	police	police	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 involvement	compound
15	involvement	involvement	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 injury	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the cost of a insult	negligible relative				to injury and punishment or police involvement	tree rules
2	cost			a insult					nom cost «possession transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

No consequence attends either course of action

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 consequence	det
2	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attends	nsubj
3	attends	attend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	either	either	DET	PronType=Ind	5 course	det
5	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attends	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 action	case
7	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 course	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attend	present	no consequence	either course of action					vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme course=Goal

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/371-walking-away/e4/