Exam question 1 · Showing off

Identify the principal reason, as established in classroom discussion, for which children engage in showing off.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, children · What happens: identify, establish, engage, show off · To what, where: principal reason, classroom discussion

This is exam question 1 of lesson 390 «Showing off» 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	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 established	punct
6	as	as	SCONJ	_	7 established	mark
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	parataxis
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 discussion	case
9	classroom	classroom	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 discussion	compound
10	discussion	discussion	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 established	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 engage	punct
12	for	for	ADP	_	13 which	case
13	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 engage	obl
14	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 engage	nsubj
15	engage	engage	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	parataxis
16	in	in	SCONJ	_	17 showing	mark
17	showing	show	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 engage	advcl
18	off	off	ADP	_	17 showing	compound:prt
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	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	establish	participle			classroom discussion	vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	engage	present	children			vn amalgamate-22.2-3-2 «NP V»: agent=Patient
4	show off	gerund	children not said here			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: 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

A wish to incur punishment

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 wish	det
2	wish	wish	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 incur	mark
4	incur	incur	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wish	acl
5	punishment	punishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 incur	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	incur	to-infinitive		punishment					tree rules

Option 2

An absence of any motive whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 absence	det
2	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 motive	case
4	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	5 motive	det
5	motive	motive	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 absence	nmod
6	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	5 motive	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absent			any motive					nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A desire to be liked or noticed by others

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 desire	det
2	desire	desire	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	5 liked	mark
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 liked	aux:pass
5	liked	like	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 desire	acl
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 noticed	cc
7	noticed	notice	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 liked	conj
8	by	by	ADP	_	9 others	case
9	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 noticed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	like	to-infinitive · passive							vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»
2	notice	participle						by others	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

A desire to injure themselves deliberately

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 desire	det
2	desire	desire	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 injure	mark
4	injure	injure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 desire	acl
5	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	4 injure	obj
6	deliberately	deliberately	ADV	_	4 injure	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	injure	to-infinitive		themselves = they				deliberately property	tree rules

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/390-showing-off/e1/