Exam question 4 · Stories that change

Determine the purpose of questioning two persons separately as to minor particulars of a shared event.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, purpose · What happens: determine, question, share · To what, where: purpose, two persons

This is exam question 4 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	Determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 purpose	det
3	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Determine	obj
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 questioning	mark
5	questioning	question	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 purpose	acl
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 persons	nummod
7	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 questioning	obj
8	separately	separately	ADV	_	5 questioning	advmod
9	as	as	ADP	_	12 particulars	case
10	to	to	PART	_	11 minor	mark
11	minor	minor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 particulars	amod
12	particulars	particular	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 questioning	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 event	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 event	det
15	shared	share	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 event	amod
16	event	event	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 particulars	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here	the purpose			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent purpose=Topic
2	question speech: other	gerund	the purpose not said here		two persons	as minor particulars of a shared event; separately property	vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent person=Recipient as particular=Attribute
3	share	participle					tree rules

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 discover which of them is older

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 discover	mark
2	discover	discover	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 older	advcl
3	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	2 discover	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 them	case
5	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 which	obl
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 older	cop
7	older	old	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	discover	to-infinitive							vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Topic
2	is	present						old property	tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

To punish both persons equally

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 punish	mark
2	punish	punish	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	4 persons	det
4	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 punish	obj
5	equally	equally	ADV	_	2 punish	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	punish	to-infinitive		both persons				equally property	vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Patient

Option 3

To prevent them from eating lunch together

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 prevent	mark
2	prevent	prevent	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 prevent	obj
4	from	from	SCONJ	_	5 eating	mark
5	eating	eat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 prevent	advcl
6	lunch	lunch	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 eating	obj
7	together	together	ADV	_	5 eating	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	to-infinitive		them = they					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer they=Theme
2	eat	gerund		lunch				together property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lunch=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

To ascertain whether their recollections agree in detail

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 ascertain	mark
2	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	6 agree	mark
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 recollections	nmod:poss
5	recollections	recollection	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 agree	nsubj
6	agree	agree	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 ascertain	ccomp
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 detail	case
8	detail	detail	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 agree	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	roles by
1	ascertain	to-infinitive			vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	agree speech: agree	present	their recollections	detail	vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	recollect		their = they		nom recollection «cognition transitive»: poss=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/449-stories-that-change/e4/