Exam question 2 · Big kids, little kids and the truth at home

Identify the principal reason for which two persons maintaining a shared falsehood are frequently detected when questioned separately.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, two persons · What happens: identify, maintain, share, detect, question · To what, where: principal reason, shared falsehood, two persons

This is exam question 2 of lesson 433 «Big kids, little kids and the truth at home» 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	15 detected	obl
7	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 persons	nummod
8	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 detected	nsubj:pass
9	maintaining	maintain	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 persons	acl
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 falsehood	det
11	shared	share	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 falsehood	amod
12	falsehood	falsehood	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 maintaining	obj
13	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 detected	aux:pass
14	frequently	frequently	ADV	_	15 detected	advmod
15	detected	detect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
16	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	17 questioned	advmod
17	questioned	question	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 detected	advcl
18	separately	separately	ADV	_	17 questioned	advmod
19	.	.	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	maintain	gerund	two persons not said here	a shared falsehood		vn declare-29.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent falsehood=Theme
3	share	participle				tree rules
4	detect	present · passive		two persons	for the principal reason; frequently property	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus
5	question speech: other	participle			separately property	vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: 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 · ← Mova's choice

They are questioned at excessive length

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 questioned	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 questioned	aux:pass
3	questioned	question	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 length	case
5	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 length	amod
6	length	length	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 questioned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	question speech: other	present · passive		They		excessive length			vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Recipient

Option 2

Separate questioning is prohibited

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Separate	separate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 questioning	amod
2	questioning	questioning	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 prohibited	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 prohibited	aux:pass
4	prohibited	prohibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prohibit	present · passive		Separate questioning					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3

Shared falsehoods are invariably true in every particular

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shared	share	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 falsehoods	amod
2	falsehoods	falsehood	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 true	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 true	cop
4	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	5 true	advmod
5	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 particular	case
7	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	8 particular	det
8	particular	particular	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 true	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	share	participle							tree rules
2	is	present	Shared falsehoods			every particular		invariably, true property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The details of their accounts do not correspond

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 details	det
2	details	detail	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 correspond	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 accounts	case
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 accounts	nmod:poss
5	accounts	account	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 details	nmod
6	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 correspond	aux
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 correspond	advmod
8	correspond	correspond	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	not correspond	present · do-support	the details of details's accounts		vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	detail			details's accounts	nom detail «cognition transitive»: of=patient
3	account		details = detail		nom account «communication transitive»: poss=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/433-big-kids-little-kids-and-the-truth-at-home/e2/