Exam question 4 · A stranger's story

Determine the course of action recommended for a child separated from his family within a shopping centre.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: determine, recommend, separate · To what, where: course, action, child

This is exam question 4 of lesson 446 «A stranger's story» 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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 course	det
3	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Determine	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 action	case
5	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 course	nmod
6	recommended	recommend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 action	acl
7	for	for	ADP	_	9 child	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 child	det
9	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 recommended	obl
10	separated	separate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 child	acl
11	from	from	ADP	_	13 family	case
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 family	nmod:poss
13	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 separated	obl
14	within	within	ADP	_	17 centre	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 centre	det
16	shopping	shopping	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 centre	compound
17	centre	centre	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 separated	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here	the course of action		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent course=Topic
2	recommend	participle		action not said here	for a child	vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent for child=Attribute
3	separate	participle		a child not said here	within a shopping centre; from child's family	vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle PP»: agent=Patient from family=Co-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

To proceed alone to the car park

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 proceed	mark
2	proceed	proceed	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	alone	alone	ADV	_	2 proceed	advmod
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 park	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 park	det
6	car	car	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 park	compound
7	park	park	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 proceed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	proceed	to-infinitive						to the car park; alone property	vn begin-55.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To remain within the premises at a desk staffed by employees

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 remain	mark
2	remain	remain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	within	within	ADP	_	5 premises	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 premises	det
5	premises	premise	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 remain	obl
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 desk	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 desk	det
8	desk	desk	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 remain	obl
9	staffed	staff	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 desk	acl
10	by	by	ADP	_	11 employees	case
11	employees	employee	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 staffed	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	to-infinitive				a desk		within the premises	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at desk=Location
2	staff	participle		a desk not said here					vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

To conceal himself until the premises close

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 conceal	mark
2	conceal	conceal	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 conceal	obj
4	until	until	SCONJ	_	7 close	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 premises	det
6	premises	premise	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 close	nsubj
7	close	close	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 conceal	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conceal	to-infinitive		himself = he					vn concealment-16 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Patient
2	close	present	the premises						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

To leave the premises with any adult who offers assistance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 leave	mark
2	leave	leave	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 premises	det
4	premises	premise	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 leave	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 adult	case
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 adult	det
7	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 leave	obl
8	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 offers	nsubj
9	offers	offer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 adult	acl:relcl
10	assistance	assistance	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 offers	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leave	to-infinitive		the premises				with any adult	vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP.theme»: agent=Agent premise=Recipient with adult=Theme
2	offer	present	any adult	assistance					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent assistance=Theme

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/446-a-strangers-story/e4/