Exam question 4 · Gift cards and birthday money: making it last

Select the response most consistent with established guidance concerning the deferral of a purchase until a reduction in price.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established guidance · What happens: select, establish, concern, defer · To what, where: response, deferral, purchase

This is exam question 4 of lesson 415 «Gift cards and birthday money: making it last» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 consistent	advmod
5	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	amod
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 guidance	case
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 guidance	amod
8	guidance	guidance	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 guidance	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 deferral	det
11	deferral	deferral	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 purchase	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 purchase	det
14	purchase	purchase	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 deferral	nmod
15	until	until	ADP	_	17 reduction	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 reduction	det
17	reduction	reduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obl
18	in	in	ADP	_	19 price	case
19	price	price	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 reduction	nmod
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	established guidance not said here	the deferral of a purchase	until a reduction in price	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus deferral=Experiencer
4	defer			a purchase		nom deferral «state 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 right answer

Deferral may permit the same item to be acquired at a lower cost

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Deferral	deferral	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 permit	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 permit	aux
3	permit	permit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 item	det
5	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 item	amod
6	item	item	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 permit	obj
7	to	to	PART	_	9 acquired	mark
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 acquired	aux:pass
9	acquired	acquire	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 item	acl
10	at	at	ADP	_	13 cost	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 cost	det
12	lower	low	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	13 cost	amod
13	cost	cost	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquired	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	permit	may	Deferral	the same item					vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent item=Theme
2	acquire	to-infinitive · passive	Deferral not said here	the same item not said here		a lower cost			vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»

Option 2

Deferral renders the purchase invalid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Deferral	deferral	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	nsubj
2	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 invalid	det
4	purchase	purchase	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 invalid	compound
5	invalid	invalid	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	Deferral	the purchase invalid					vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent invalid=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Deferral is prohibited in respect of games

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Deferral	deferral	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 prohibited	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 prohibited	aux:pass
3	prohibited	prohibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 respect	case
5	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 prohibited	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 games	case
7	games	game	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 respect	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prohibit	present · passive		Deferral		respect of games			vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	respect			games					nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Deferral invariably increases the eventual cost

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Deferral	deferral	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 increases	nsubj
2	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	3 increases	advmod
3	increases	increase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cost	det
5	eventual	eventual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 cost	amod
6	cost	cost	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 increases	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	increase	present	Deferral	the eventual cost				invariably property	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer cost=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/415-gift-cards-and-birthday-money/e4/