Exam question 1 · Grown-ups' little lies: the ice-cream van

Identify the principal reason for which the parent informed the child that the ice-cream vehicle's music signified the exhaustion of its stock.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, parent, music · What happens: identify, inform, signify, exhaust, stock · To what, where: principal reason, child, exhaustion, stock

This is exam question 1 of lesson 443 «Grown-ups' little lies: the ice-cream van» 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	9 informed	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 parent	det
8	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 informed	nsubj
9	informed	inform	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 child	det
11	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 informed	obj
12	that	that	SCONJ	_	20 signified	mark
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 vehicle	det
14	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 cream	compound
15	-	-	PUNCT	_	14 ice	punct
16	cream	cream	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 vehicle	compound
17	vehicle	vehicle	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 music	nmod:poss
18	's	's	PART	_	17 vehicle	case
19	music	music	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 signified	nsubj
20	signified	signify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 informed	advcl
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 exhaustion	det
22	exhaustion	exhaustion	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 signified	obj
23	of	of	ADP	_	25 stock	case
24	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	25 stock	nmod:poss
25	stock	stock	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 exhaustion	nmod
26	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to 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	inform speech: other	past	the parent		the child	for the principal reason	vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent child=Recipient
3	signify	past	the cream vehicle's music	the exhaustion of music's stock			vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot exhaustion=Theme
4	exhaust			music's stock			nom exhaustion «state transitive»: of=patient
5	stock		music				nom stock «possession transitive»: poss=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

To comply with the regulations of the vendor

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 comply	mark
2	comply	comply	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	with	with	ADP	_	5 regulations	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 regulations	det
5	regulations	regulation	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 comply	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 vendor	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 vendor	det
8	vendor	vendor	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 regulations	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	comply	to-infinitive						with the regulations of the vendor	tree rules
2	regulate			the vendor					nom regulation «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

To teach the child to recognise music

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 teach	mark
2	teach	teach	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 child	det
4	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 teach	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 recognise	mark
6	recognise	recognise	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 teach	xcomp
7	music	music	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 recognise	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	teach speech: other	to-infinitive			the child				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent child=Recipient clause=Topic
2	recognise	to-infinitive		music					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer music=Stimulus

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

To protect the child from a dangerous vehicle in the road

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 protect	mark
2	protect	protect	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 child	det
4	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 protect	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	8 vehicle	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 vehicle	det
7	dangerous	dangerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 vehicle	amod
8	vehicle	vehicle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 protect	obl
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 road	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 road	det
11	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 protect	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	protect	to-infinitive			the child			in the road; from a dangerous vehicle	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent child=Beneficiary from vehicle=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

To avoid repeated purchases and consequent disputes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 avoid	mark
2	avoid	avoid	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	repeated	repeat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 purchases	amod
4	purchases	purchase	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 avoid	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 disputes	cc
6	consequent	consequent	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 disputes	compound
7	disputes	dispute	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 purchases	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	avoid	to-infinitive		repeated purchases and consequent disputes					vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent purchase=Location
2	repeat	participle							vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

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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