Exam question 1 · The bulldog next door who never likes you

Identify the principal reason for which a guard dog exhibits aggression towards persons who linger at its gate.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, guard dog, persons · What happens: identify, exhibit, linger · To what, where: principal reason, aggression, gate

This is exam question 1 of lesson 456 «The bulldog next door who never likes you» 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 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 exhibits	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 dog	det
8	guard	guard	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 dog	compound
9	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 exhibits	nsubj
10	exhibits	exhibit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
11	aggression	aggression	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 exhibits	obj
12	towards	towards	ADP	_	13 persons	case
13	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 exhibits	obl
14	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 linger	nsubj
15	linger	linger	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 persons	acl:relcl
16	at	at	ADP	_	18 gate	case
17	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 gate	nmod:poss
18	gate	gate	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 linger	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	exhibit	present	a guard dog	aggression		for the principal reason; towards persons	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent aggression=Theme
3	linger	present	persons		dog's gate		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at gate=Location

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

It seeks to obtain confectionery from passers-by

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 seeks	nsubj
2	seeks	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 obtain	mark
4	obtain	obtain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 seeks	xcomp
5	confectionery	confectionery	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 obtain	obj
6	from	from	ADP	_	7 passers	case
7	passers	passer	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 obtain	obl
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 passers	punct
9	by	by	ADP	_	4 obtain	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	seek	present	It						tree rules
2	obtain not said to happen	to-infinitive		confectionery				from passers	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent confectionery=Theme from passer=Source

Option 2

It harbours a personal animosity towards each individual

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 harbours	nsubj
2	harbours	harbour	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 animosity	det
4	personal	personal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 animosity	amod
5	animosity	animosity	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 harbours	obj
6	towards	towards	ADP	_	8 individual	case
7	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	8 individual	det
8	individual	individual	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 harbours	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	harbour	present	It	a personal animosity				towards each individual	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It has been instructed to attack all children

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 instructed	nsubj:pass
2	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 instructed	aux
3	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 instructed	aux:pass
4	instructed	instruct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 attack	mark
6	attack	attack	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 instructed	xcomp
7	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	8 children	det
8	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 attack	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	instruct speech: other	present · perfect · passive		It					vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP how S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	attack	to-infinitive		all children					vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It perceives such persons as a threat to the premises it defends

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 perceives	nsubj
2	perceives	perceive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 persons	amod
4	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 perceives	obj
5	as	as	ADP	_	7 threat	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 threat	det
7	threat	threat	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 perceives	obl
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 premises	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 premises	det
10	premises	premise	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 threat	nmod
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 defends	nsubj
12	defends	defend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 premises	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perceive	present	It	such persons				as a threat to the premises	vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent person=Theme as threat=Attribute
2	defend	present	threat	the premises not said here					vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent premise=Beneficiary

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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