Exam question 1 · Lies that grow: one lie needs three more

Identify the principal reason for which a single falsehood commonly necessitates further falsehoods.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, single falsehood · What happens: identify, necessitate · To what, where: principal reason, further falsehoods

This is exam question 1 of lesson 430 «Lies that grow: one lie needs three more» 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 necessitates	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 falsehood	det
8	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 falsehood	amod
9	falsehood	falsehood	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 necessitates	nsubj
10	commonly	commonly	ADV	_	11 necessitates	advmod
11	necessitates	necessitate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
12	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 falsehoods	amod
13	falsehoods	falsehood	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 necessitates	obj
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	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	necessitate	present	a single falsehood	further falsehoods				for the principal reason; commonly property	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme falsehood=Precondition

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 first falsehood is always forgotten

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 falsehood	det
2	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	3 falsehood	amod
3	falsehood	falsehood	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 forgotten	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 forgotten	aux:pass
5	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	6 forgotten	advmod
6	forgotten	forget	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forget	present · passive		the first falsehood				always property	tree rules

Option 2

Listeners request that further falsehoods be told to them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Listeners	listener	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 request	nsubj
2	request	request	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 told	mark
4	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 falsehoods	amod
5	falsehoods	falsehood	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 told	nsubj:pass
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 told	aux:pass
7	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 request	advcl
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 them	case
9	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 told	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	request	present	Listeners						vn beg-58.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent
2	tell speech: assert	infinitive · passive		further falsehoods	Listeners = listener				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Topic to they=Recipient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Subsequent questions require additional invented answers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Subsequent	subsequent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 questions	amod
2	questions	question	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 require	nsubj
3	require	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	additional	additional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 answers	amod
5	invented	invent	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 answers	amod
6	answers	answer	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 require	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	Subsequent questions	additional invented answers					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme answer=Precondition
2	invent	participle							vn create-26.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Falsehoods multiply of their own accord over time

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Falsehoods	falsehood	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 multiply	nsubj
2	multiply	multiply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 accord	case
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 accord	nmod:poss
5	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 accord	amod
6	accord	accord	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 multiply	obl
7	over	over	ADP	_	8 time	case
8	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 multiply	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	multiply	present	Falsehoods				time	of Falsehoods's own accord	vn birth-28.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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.

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