Exam question 1 · Politicians and promises, as the news reports them

Identify the principal reason for which two public figures may cite the same body of statistics in support of contrary conclusions.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, two public figures · What happens: identify, cite, support · To what, where: principal reason, same body, support, contrary conclusions

This is exam question 1 of lesson 442 «Politicians and promises, as the news reports them» 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 cite	obl
7	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 figures	nummod
8	public	public	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 figures	amod
9	figures	figure	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 cite	nsubj
10	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 cite	aux
11	cite	cite	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 body	det
13	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 body	amod
14	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 cite	obj
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 statistics	case
16	statistics	statistic	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 body	nmod
17	in	in	ADP	_	18 support	case
18	support	support	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 cite	obl
19	of	of	ADP	_	21 conclusions	case
20	contrary	contrary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 conclusions	amod
21	conclusions	conclusion	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 support	nmod
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	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	cite	may	two public figures	the same body of statistics	support of contrary conclusions	for the principal reason	vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent body=Theme for which=Attribute
3	support			contrary conclusions			nom support «act 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 · ← Mova's choice

Statistics are invariably fabricated

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Statistics	statistic	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 fabricated	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 fabricated	cop
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	4 fabricated	advmod
4	fabricated	fabricated	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Statistics					fabricated, invariably property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Each selects the period or portion most favourable to his case

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	2 selects	nsubj
2	selects	select	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 period	det
4	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 selects	obj
5	or	or	CCONJ	_	6 portion	cc
6	portion	portion	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 period	conj
7	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	8 favourable	advmod
8	favourable	favourable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 period	amod
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 case	case
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 case	nmod:poss
11	case	case	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 favourable	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	select	present	Each	the period or portion					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent period=Theme

Option 3

Statistical data cannot be compared

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Statistical	statistical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 data	amod
2	data	data	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 compared	nsubj:pass
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 compared	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 compared	advmod
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 compared	aux:pass
6	compared	compare	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not compare	can · passive		Statistical data					vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 4

Only one of them is able to read figures, the other guessing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	2 one	advmod
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 able	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 them	case
4	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 one	nmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 able	cop
6	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 read	mark
8	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 able	xcomp
9	figures	figure	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 read	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 guessing	punct
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 guessing	det
12	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 guessing	amod
13	guessing	guessing	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 able	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	one of them					able property	tree rules
2	read	to-infinitive	one of them not said here	figures					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent figure=Topic

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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