Exam question 1 · The magician's trick explained

Identify the principal distinction between a theatrical magic performance and a confidence trick.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify · To what, where: principal distinction

This is exam question 1 of lesson 448 «The magician's trick explained» 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 distinction	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 distinction	amod
4	distinction	distinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	between	between	ADP	_	9 performance	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 performance	det
7	theatrical	theatrical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 performance	amod
8	magic	magic	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 performance	compound
9	performance	performance	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 distinction	nmod
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 trick	cc
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 trick	det
12	confidence	confidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 trick	compound
13	trick	trick	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 performance	conj
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal distinction				between a theatrical magic performance and a confidence trick	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent distinction=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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The audience consents to be deceived and nothing is retained by the performer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 audience	det
2	audience	audience	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 consents	nsubj
3	consents	consent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	6 deceived	mark
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 deceived	aux:pass
6	deceived	deceive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 consents	xcomp
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 retained	cc
8	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	10 retained	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 retained	aux:pass
10	retained	retain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 deceived	conj
11	by	by	ADP	_	13 performer	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 performer	det
13	performer	performer	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 retained	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	consent	present	the audience		vn acquiesce-95.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	deceive	to-infinitive · passive	the audience not said here		vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»
3	retain	present · passive	the performer	nothing	tree rules

Option 2

The magician invariably performs without remuneration, whereas the confidence trickster is paid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 magician	det
2	magician	magician	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 performs	nsubj
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	4 performs	advmod
4	performs	perform	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	without	without	ADP	_	6 remuneration	case
6	remuneration	remuneration	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 performs	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 paid	punct
8	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	13 paid	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 trickster	det
10	confidence	confidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 trickster	compound
11	trickster	trickster	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 paid	nsubj:pass
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 paid	aux:pass
13	paid	pay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 performs	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perform	present	the magician					without remuneration; invariably property	vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	pay	present · passive		the confidence trickster					vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Asset

Option 3

No distinction can be drawn between them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 distinction	det
2	distinction	distinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 drawn	nsubj:pass
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 drawn	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 drawn	aux:pass
5	drawn	draw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	between	between	ADP	_	7 them	case
7	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 drawn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	draw	can · passive		no distinction				between them = they	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4

The confidence trickster invariably works alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 trickster	det
2	confidence	confidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 trickster	compound
3	trickster	trickster	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 works	nsubj
4	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	5 works	advmod
5	works	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	alone	alone	ADV	_	5 works	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	present	the confidence trickster					alone, invariably property	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: 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.

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