Exam question 1 · Stories that change

Identify the principal characteristic by which a fabricated account may frequently be distinguished from a truthful one.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal characteristic · What happens: identify, distinguish · To what, where: principal characteristic, fabricated account

This is exam question 1 of lesson 449 «Stories that change» 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 characteristic	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 characteristic	amod
4	characteristic	characteristic	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 distinguished	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 account	det
8	fabricated	fabricated	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 account	amod
9	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 distinguished	nsubj:pass
10	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 distinguished	aux
11	frequently	frequently	ADV	_	13 distinguished	advmod
12	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	13 distinguished	aux:pass
13	distinguished	distinguish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 characteristic	acl:relcl
14	from	from	ADP	_	17 one	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 one	det
16	truthful	truthful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 one	amod
17	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 distinguished	obl
18	.	.	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 characteristic					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent characteristic=Theme
2	distinguish	may · passive	the principal characteristic	a fabricated account				from a truthful one; frequently property	vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent subject=Theme from one=Co-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

It is invariably delivered with a smile

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 delivered	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 delivered	aux:pass
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	4 delivered	advmod
4	delivered	deliver	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 smile	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 smile	det
7	smile	smile	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 delivered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deliver	present · passive		It				with a smile; invariably property	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 2

It contains no details whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 contains	nsubj
2	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 details	det
4	details	detail	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 contains	obj
5	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 contains	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	present	It	no details				whatsoever property	vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot detail=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Its details alter upon each repetition

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 details	nmod:poss
2	details	detail	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 alter	nsubj
3	alter	alter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 repetition	case
5	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	6 repetition	det
6	repetition	repetition	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 alter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	alter	present	Its details					upon each repetition	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	detail		Its = it						nom detail «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

It is invariably longer than a truthful account

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 account	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 account	cop
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	4 longer	advmod
4	longer	long	ADV	Degree=Cmp	8 account	advmod
5	than	than	ADP	_	8 account	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 account	det
7	truthful	truthful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 account	amod
8	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					than a truthful account; long property	tree rules

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/449-stories-that-change/e1/