Exam question 1 · Ponytail tugging: crushes shown clumsily

Identify the principal reason for which certain children manifest affection by means of teasing or the pulling of hair.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, certain children · What happens: identify, manifest, mean, pull · To what, where: principal reason, affection, hair

This is exam question 1 of lesson 387 «Ponytail tugging: crushes shown clumsily» 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	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 manifest	obl
7	certain	certain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 children	amod
8	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 manifest	nsubj
9	manifest	manifest	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
10	affection	affection	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 manifest	obj
11	by	by	ADP	_	12 means	case
12	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 manifest	parataxis
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 teasing	case
14	teasing	teasing	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 means	obl
15	or	or	CCONJ	_	17 pulling	cc
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 pulling	det
17	pulling	pulling	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 teasing	conj
18	of	of	ADP	_	19 hair	case
19	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 pulling	nmod
20	.	.	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	manifest	present	certain children	affection	for the principal reason	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent affection=Theme
3	mean	present			of teasing or the pulling of hair	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
4	pull			hair		nom pulling «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

They have been instructed so to act by adults

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 instructed	nsubj:pass
2	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 instructed	aux
3	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 instructed	aux:pass
4	instructed	instruct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	so	so	ADV	_	7 act	advmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 act	mark
7	act	act	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 instructed	xcomp
8	by	by	ADP	_	9 adults	case
9	adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 act	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	instruct speech: other	present · perfect · passive		They					vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP how S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	act	to-infinitive						by adults	vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

They intend to cause the other child lasting distress and unhappiness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 intend	nsubj
2	intend	intend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 cause	mark
4	cause	cause	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 intend	advcl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 child	det
6	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 child	amod
7	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	obj
8	lasting	last	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 child	acl
9	distress	distress	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lasting	obj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 unhappiness	cc
11	unhappiness	unhappiness	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 distress	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	intend	present	They		vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	cause	to-infinitive	They not said here	the other child	vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition child=Patient
3	last	gerund	the other child not said here	distress and unhappiness	vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme distress=Value

Option 3

Such conduct is a recognised token of courtesy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 conduct	amod
2	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 token	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 token	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 token	det
5	recognised	recognise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 token	amod
6	token	token	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 courtesy	case
8	courtesy	courtesy	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 token	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	recognise	participle							vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
2	is a	present	Such conduct	a recognised token				of courtesy	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They lack the words to express the sentiment and feel embarrassed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 lack	nsubj
2	lack	lack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 words	det
4	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 lack	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 express	mark
6	express	express	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 lack	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sentiment	det
8	sentiment	sentiment	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 express	obj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 feel	cc
10	feel	feel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 lack	conj
11	embarrassed	embarrassed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 feel	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	lack	present	They	the words		tree rules
2	express	to-infinitive	They not said here	the sentiment		vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sentiment=Theme
3	feel	present	They not said here		embarrassed property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus

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/387-ponytail-tugging-crushes-shown-clumsily/e1/