Exam question 1 · Covering for a friend

Identify the statement most consistent with the established facts concerning a pupil who denies having witnessed an act he did witness, in order to protect a friend.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts, pupil · What happens: identify, establish, concern, deny, have, witness · To what, where: statement, pupil, act, witness, friend

This is exam question 1 of lesson 436 «Covering for a friend» 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	3 statement	det
3	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 consistent	advmod
5	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 statement	amod
6	with	with	ADP	_	9 facts	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 facts	det
8	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 facts	amod
9	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 consistent	obl
10	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 facts	acl
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 pupil	det
12	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 concerning	obj
13	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 denies	nsubj
14	denies	deny	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 pupil	acl:relcl
15	having	have	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	14 denies	xcomp
16	witnessed	witness	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 having	xcomp
17	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 act	det
18	act	act	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 witnessed	obj
19	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 did	nsubj
20	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 act	acl:relcl
21	witness	witness	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 did	obj
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 protect	punct
23	in	in	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	26 protect	mark
24	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 in	fixed
25	to	to	PART	_	26 protect	mark
26	protect	protect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Identify	parataxis
27	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	28 friend	det
28	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 protect	obj
29	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the statement		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent statement=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	a pupil		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus pupil=Experiencer
4	deny	present	a pupil			vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
5	have	gerund	a pupil not said here			tree rules
6	witness	participle	a pupil not said here	a act		vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent act=Beneficiary
7	do	past	pupil	witness		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent witness=Eventuality
8	protect	to-infinitive			a friend	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent friend=Beneficiary

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 denial bears no risk whatever to the pupil

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 bears	det
2	denial	denial	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bears	compound
3	bears	bear	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 whatever	nsubj
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 risk	det
5	risk	risk	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 whatever	nsubj
6	whatever	whatever	PRON	PronType=Rel	root	root
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 pupil	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 pupil	det
9	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 whatever	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

The denial is required by friendship

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 denial	det
2	denial	denial	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 required	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 required	aux:pass
4	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 friendship	case
6	friendship	friendship	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 required	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present · passive	friendship	the denial					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Precondition

Option 3

The denial is honest, being made from loyalty to a friend

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 denial	det
2	denial	denial	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 honest	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 honest	cop
4	honest	honest	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 made	punct
6	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 made	aux:pass
7	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 honest	conj
8	from	from	ADP	_	9 loyalty	case
9	loyalty	loyalty	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 made	obl
10	to	to	ADP	_	12 friend	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 friend	det
12	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 loyalty	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the denial					honest property	tree rules
2	make	gerund · passive	the denial not said here			loyalty to a friend			vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V PP»: from loyalty=Material

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The denial is a falsehood which may implicate the pupil himself

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 denial	det
2	denial	denial	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 falsehood	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 falsehood	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 falsehood	det
5	falsehood	falsehood	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 implicate	nsubj
7	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 implicate	aux
8	implicate	implicate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 falsehood	acl:relcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 pupil	det
10	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 implicate	obj
11	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	8 implicate	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the denial	a falsehood					tree rules
2	implicate	may	a falsehood	the pupil				pupil obl:unmarked	tree rules

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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