Exam question 2 · Maddie the tomboy

Identify the principal distinction between participation in a supervised boxing club and engagement in a street fight.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, supervise · To what, where: principal distinction, supervised boxing club

This is exam question 2 of lesson 378 «Maddie the tomboy» 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 distinction	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 distinction	amod
4	distinction	distinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	between	between	ADP	_	6 participation	case
6	participation	participation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 distinction	nmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	11 club	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 club	det
9	supervised	supervise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 club	amod
10	boxing	boxing	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 club	compound
11	club	club	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 engagement	cc
13	engagement	engagement	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 club	conj
14	in	in	ADP	_	17 fight	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 fight	det
16	street	street	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 fight	compound
17	fight	fight	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal distinction		a supervised boxing club and engagement		between participation; in a street fight	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent distinction=Theme
2	supervise	participle							vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=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

There exists no material distinction whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	There	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	2 exists	expl
2	exists	exist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 distinction	det
4	material	material	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 distinction	compound
5	distinction	distinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exists	obj
6	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 exists	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exist	present		no material distinction		there		whatsoever property	tree rules

Option 2

The latter is safer by reason of its considerably shorter duration

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 latter	det
2	latter	latter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 safer	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 safer	cop
4	safer	safe	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 reason	case
6	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 safer	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	11 duration	case
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 duration	nmod:poss
9	considerably	considerably	ADV	_	10 shorter	advmod
10	shorter	short	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	11 duration	amod
11	duration	duration	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reason	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the latter					by reason of reason's shorter duration; safe property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The former is governed by rules, coaching and protective equipment

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 former	det
2	former	former	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 governed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 governed	aux:pass
4	governed	govern	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 rules	case
6	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 governed	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 coaching	punct
8	coaching	coach	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 rules	acl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 equipment	cc
10	protective	protective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 equipment	amod
11	equipment	equipment	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 rules	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	govern	present · passive	rules and protective equipment	the former					vn supervision-95.2.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent subject=Theme
2	coach	gerund	rules and protective equipment not said here						vn vehicle-51.4.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The former permits unlimited striking of any person

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 permits	det
2	former	former	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 permits	amod
3	permits	permit	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 striking	nsubj
4	unlimited	unlimited	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 striking	amod
5	striking	striking	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 person	case
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 person	det
8	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 striking	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike			any person					nom striking «event 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.

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