Exam question 2 · When the police come

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the obligation of a child witness questioned by a police officer?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, characteris, question, obligate · To what, where: obligation, child witness

This is exam question 2 of lesson 384 «When the police come» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 obligation	det
10	obligation	obligation	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 witness	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 witness	det
13	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 witness	compound
14	witness	witness	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 obligation	nmod
15	questioned	question	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 witness	acl
16	by	by	ADP	_	19 officer	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 officer	det
18	police	police	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 officer	compound
19	officer	officer	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 questioned	obl
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	the obligation of a child witness	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	question speech: other	participle	a child witness not said here	by a police officer	vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	obligate		a child witness		nom obligation «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

The witness should decline to answer in order to protect his peers from blame

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 witness	det
2	witness	witness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 decline	nsubj
3	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 decline	aux
4	decline	decline	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 answer	mark
6	answer	answer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 decline	xcomp
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 order	case
8	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 answer	obl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 protect	mark
10	protect	protect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 decline	advcl
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 peers	nmod:poss
12	peers	peer	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 protect	obj
13	from	from	ADP	_	14 blame	case
14	blame	blame	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 protect	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	decline	should	the witness				vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not answer speech: assert	to-infinitive	the witness not said here		order		vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	protect	to-infinitive	the witness not said here	witness's peers		from blame	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent peer=Beneficiary from blame=Theme

Option 2

The witness should supply probable details where uncertain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 witness	det
2	witness	witness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 supply	nsubj
3	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 supply	aux
4	supply	supply	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	probable	probable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 details	amod
6	details	detail	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 supply	obj
7	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	8 uncertain	advmod
8	uncertain	uncertain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 supply	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	supply	should	the witness	probable details					vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent detail=Recipient

Option 3

The witness should relate the accounts of others as his own

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 witness	det
2	witness	witness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 relate	nsubj
3	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 relate	aux
4	relate	relate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 accounts	det
6	accounts	account	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 relate	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 others	case
8	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 accounts	nmod
9	as	as	ADP	_	11 own	case
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 own	nmod:poss
11	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 relate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	relate	should	the witness	the accounts of others				as witness's own	vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent account=Theme
2	account			others					nom account «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The witness should state truthfully only what he personally saw and heard

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 witness	det
2	witness	witness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 state	nsubj
3	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 state	aux
4	state	state	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	truthfully	truthfully	ADV	_	4 state	advmod
6	only	only	ADV	_	7 what	advmod
7	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 state	obj
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 saw	nsubj
9	personally	personally	ADV	_	10 saw	advmod
10	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 what	acl:relcl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 heard	cc
12	heard	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 saw	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	state speech: other	should	the witness	truthfully property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic
2	see	past	witness	personally property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
3	hear	past	witness not said here		vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer

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/384-when-the-police-come/e2/