Exam question 1 · How best friends start

Identify the principal flaw in an attempt to secure friendship by the daily purchase of confectionery for others.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, secure, purchase · To what, where: principal flaw, attempt, friendship, confectionery

This is exam question 1 of lesson 461 «How best friends start» 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 flaw	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 flaw	amod
4	flaw	flaw	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 attempt	case
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 attempt	det
7	attempt	attempt	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 secure	mark
9	secure	secure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Identify	advcl
10	friendship	friendship	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 secure	obj
11	by	by	ADP	_	14 purchase	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 purchase	det
13	daily	daily	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 purchase	amod
14	purchase	purchase	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 secure	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 confectionery	case
16	confectionery	confectionery	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 purchase	nmod
17	for	for	ADP	_	18 others	case
18	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 secure	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 flaw	a attempt		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent flaw=Theme
2	secure	to-infinitive	you not said here	friendship		by the daily purchase of confectionery; for others	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Precondition friendship=Theme for other=Beneficiary
3	purchase			confectionery			nom purchase «act transitive»: of=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 · ← Mova's choice

The recipients must reciprocate in equal measure

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 recipients	det
2	recipients	recipient	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 reciprocate	nsubj
3	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 reciprocate	aux
4	reciprocate	reciprocate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 measure	case
6	equal	equal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 measure	amod
7	measure	measure	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reciprocate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reciprocate	must	the recipients			equal measure			vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Friendship can only be purchased with crisps

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Friendship	friendship	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 purchased	nsubj:pass
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 purchased	aux
3	only	only	ADV	_	5 purchased	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 purchased	aux:pass
5	purchased	purchase	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	with	with	ADP	_	7 crisps	case
7	crisps	crisp	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 purchased	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	purchase	can · passive		Friendship				with crisps	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The resulting attachment ceases when the gifts cease

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 ceases	det
2	resulting	result	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 ceases	amod
3	attachment	attachment	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ceases	compound
4	ceases	cease	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	when	when	SCONJ	_	8 cease	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 gifts	det
7	gifts	gift	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 cease	nsubj
8	cease	cease	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 ceases	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	result	gerund							vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	cease	present	the gifts						vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

Option 4

Confectionery is too costly for most pupils

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Confectionery	confectionery	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 costly	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 costly	cop
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 costly	advmod
4	costly	costly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 pupils	case
6	most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 pupils	amod
7	pupils	pupil	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 costly	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Confectionery					for most pupils; costly 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/461-how-best-friends-start/e1/