Exam question 4 · The older kid's «trade»

Determine which of the following measures most effectively prevents deception through imprecise wording.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: determine, follow, measure, prevent · To what, where: deception, imprecise wording

This is exam question 4 of lesson 445 «The older kid's «trade»» 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	Determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 measures	nsubj
3	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 measures	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 measures	det
5	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 measures	nsubj
6	measures	measure	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Determine	ccomp
7	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	8 effectively	advmod
8	effectively	effectively	ADV	_	9 prevents	advmod
9	prevents	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 measures	ccomp
10	deception	deception	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 prevents	obj
11	through	through	ADP	_	13 wording	case
12	imprecise	imprecise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 wording	amod
13	wording	wording	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 prevents	obl
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here				vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	measure	present					tree rules
4	prevent	present		deception	imprecise wording	effectively property	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer deception=Theme

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

Completing one's obligations with maximum speed, before the agreement can be altered

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Completing	complete	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 altered	csubj:pass
2	one	one	PRON	Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 obligations	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 one	case
4	obligations	obligation	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Completing	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 speed	case
6	maximum	maximum	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 speed	amod
7	speed	speed	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Completing	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 agreement	punct
9	before	before	ADP	_	11 agreement	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 agreement	det
11	agreement	agreement	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Completing	obl
12	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 altered	aux
13	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	14 altered	aux:pass
14	altered	alter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	complete	gerund		one's obligations	before the agreement	with maximum speed	vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent obligation=Eventuality
2	alter	can · passive	Completing				vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»
3	obligate		one				nom obligation «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Declining to ask questions of the other party

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Declining	decline	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	to	to	PART	_	3 ask	mark
3	ask	ask	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Declining	xcomp
4	questions	question	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 ask	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 party	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 party	det
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 party	amod
8	party	party	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 questions	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	decline	gerund		vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not ask speech: ask	to-infinitive	questions of the other party	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient
3	question		the other party	nom question «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Stating aloud the exact terms of the agreement before accepting it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Stating	state	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	aloud	aloud	ADV	_	1 Stating	advmod
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 terms	det
4	exact	exact	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 terms	amod
5	terms	term	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Stating	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 agreement	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 agreement	det
8	agreement	agreement	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 terms	nmod
9	before	before	SCONJ	_	10 accepting	mark
10	accepting	accept	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Stating	advcl
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 accepting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	state speech: other	gerund	the exact terms of the agreement	aloud property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent term=Topic
2	accept	gerund	agreement		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
3	term		the agreement		nom term «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Accepting any agreement offered by a relative

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Accepting	accept	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 offered	advcl
2	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	3 agreement	det
3	agreement	agreement	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Accepting	obj
4	offered	offer	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 relative	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 relative	det
7	relative	relative	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 offered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accept	gerund		any agreement					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent agreement=Theme
2	offer	participle						by a relative	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/445-the-older-kids-trade/e4/