Exam question 1 · Traffic lights, crossings and parked cars

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the significance of a flashing hand or countdown signal in the United States?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, characteris, flash · To what, where: significance

This is exam question 1 of lesson 42 «Traffic lights, crossings and parked cars» 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 significance	det
10	significance	significance	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 hand	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 hand	det
13	flashing	flash	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 hand	amod
14	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 significance	nmod
15	or	or	CCONJ	_	17 signal	cc
16	countdown	countdown	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 signal	compound
17	signal	signal	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 hand	conj
18	in	in	ADP	_	21 States	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 States	det
20	United	United	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 States	amod
21	States	State	PROPN	Number=Plur	17 signal	nmod
22	?	?	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 significance of a flashing hand or countdown signal in the United States	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	flash	gerund			vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=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 right answer

A pedestrian must not commence crossing, but may complete a crossing already begun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 pedestrian	det
2	pedestrian	pedestrian	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 commence	nsubj
3	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 commence	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 commence	advmod
5	commence	commence	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	crossing	cross	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 commence	xcomp
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 complete	punct
8	but	but	CCONJ	_	10 complete	cc
9	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 complete	aux
10	complete	complete	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 commence	conj
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 crossing	det
12	crossing	crossing	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 complete	obj
13	already	already	ADV	_	14 begun	advmod
14	begun	begin	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 complete	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	not commence	must	a pedestrian		vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	cross	gerund	a pedestrian not said here		vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	complete	may	a pedestrian not said here	a crossing	vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crossing=Eventuality
4	begin	participle	a pedestrian not said here		vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

Option 2

A pedestrian must run back to the kerb

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 pedestrian	det
2	pedestrian	pedestrian	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 run	nsubj
3	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 run	aux
4	run	run	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	back	back	ADV	_	4 run	advmod
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 kerb	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 kerb	det
8	kerb	kerb	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 run	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run back	must	a pedestrian					to the kerb result	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to kerb=Result

Option 3

A pedestrian may commence crossing at once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 pedestrian	det
2	pedestrian	pedestrian	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 commence	nsubj
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 commence	aux
4	commence	commence	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	crossing	cross	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 commence	xcomp
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 once	case
7	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	4 commence	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	commence	may	a pedestrian						vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	cross	gerund	a pedestrian not said here						vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

A pedestrian must stop in the middle of the road and await the next green signal before continuing

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 pedestrian	det
2	pedestrian	pedestrian	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 stop	nsubj
3	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 stop	aux
4	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 middle	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 middle	det
7	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 stop	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 road	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 road	det
10	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 middle	nmod
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 await	cc
12	await	await	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 stop	conj
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 signal	det
14	next	next	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 signal	amod
15	green	green	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 signal	amod
16	signal	signal	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 await	obj
17	before	before	SCONJ	_	18 continuing	mark
18	continuing	continue	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 await	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	stop	must	a pedestrian		the middle of the road	vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in middle=Location
2	await	infinitive	a pedestrian not said here	the next green signal		tree rules
3	continue	gerund	a pedestrian not said here			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/42-lights-crossings-and-parked-cars/e1/