Exam question 1 · Bystanders: the crowd, the phone and the ones who help

Identify the principal reason for which a gathering of onlookers tends to prolong a physical altercation.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, gathering · What happens: identify, tend, prolong · To what, where: principal reason, physical altercation

This is exam question 1 of lesson 393 «Bystanders: the crowd, the phone and the ones who help» 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	11 tends	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 gathering	det
8	gathering	gathering	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 tends	nsubj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 onlookers	case
10	onlookers	onlooker	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 gathering	nmod
11	tends	tend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 prolong	mark
13	prolong	prolong	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 tends	xcomp
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 altercation	det
15	physical	physical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 altercation	amod
16	altercation	altercation	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 prolong	obj
17	.	.	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	tend	present	a gathering of onlookers		for the principal reason	tree rules
3	prolong	to-infinitive	a gathering of onlookers not said here	a physical altercation		vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent altercation=Theme

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

The onlookers invariably join the altercation themselves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 onlookers	det
2	onlookers	onlooker	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 join	nsubj
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	4 join	advmod
4	join	join	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 altercation	det
6	altercation	altercation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 join	obj
7	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	4 join	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	join	present	the onlookers	the altercation				invariably property	tree rules

Option 2

The onlookers summon assistance too promptly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 onlookers	det
2	onlookers	onlooker	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 summon	nsubj
3	summon	summon	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	assistance	assistance	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 summon	obj
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 promptly	advmod
6	promptly	promptly	ADV	_	3 summon	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	summon	present	the onlookers	assistance				promptly property	vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent assistance=Recipient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The participants are reluctant to withdraw before an audience

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 participants	det
2	participants	participant	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 reluctant	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reluctant	cop
4	reluctant	reluctant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 withdraw	mark
6	withdraw	withdraw	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 reluctant	xcomp
7	before	before	ADP	_	9 audience	case
8	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 audience	det
9	audience	audience	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 withdraw	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the participants					reluctant property	tree rules
2	withdraw	to-infinitive	the participants not said here				before a audience		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

An audience has no bearing upon the participants whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 audience	det
2	audience	audience	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	nsubj
3	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 bearing	det
5	bearing	bearing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	obj
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 participants	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 participants	det
8	participants	participant	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 bearing	nmod
9	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	3 has	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	a audience	no bearing				upon the participants; whatsoever property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bearing=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/393-bystanders/e1/