Exam question 3 · How best friends start

Given that two close friends are assigned to separate classes, ascertain the course most likely to preserve their friendship.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: give, assign, separate, ascertain, preserve · To what, where: two close friends, classes, course, friendship

This is exam question 3 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	Given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 ascertain	advcl
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 assigned	mark
3	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 friends	nummod
4	close	close	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 friends	amod
5	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 assigned	nsubj:pass
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 assigned	aux:pass
7	assigned	assign	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Given	advcl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 separate	mark
9	separate	separate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 assigned	xcomp
10	classes	class	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 separate	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 ascertain	punct
12	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 likely	advcl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 course	det
14	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 ascertain	obj
15	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	16 likely	advmod
16	likely	likely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
17	to	to	PART	_	18 preserve	mark
18	preserve	preserve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 likely	xcomp
19	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	20 friendship	nmod:poss
20	friendship	friendship	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 preserve	obj
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	16 likely	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	give	participle		vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	assign	present · passive	two close friends	tree rules
3	separate	to-infinitive	classes	vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent class=Patient
4	ascertain	present	the course	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent course=Topic
5	preserve	to-infinitive	friends's friendship	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent friendship=Beneficiary

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 immediate termination of the friendship

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 termination	det
2	immediate	immediate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 termination	amod
3	termination	termination	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 friendship	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 friendship	det
6	friendship	friendship	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 termination	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

A demand that the school reverse its decision

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 demand	det
2	demand	demand	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reverse	nsubj
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	5 school	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 school	det
5	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 demand	acl
6	reverse	reverse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 decision	nmod:poss
8	decision	decision	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reverse	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reverse	present	a demand	demand's decision					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent decision=Patient
2	decide		demand						nom decision «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

Refusal to associate with any new classmates

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Refusal	refusal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	to	to	PART	_	3 associate	mark
3	associate	associate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Refusal	acl
4	with	with	ADP	_	7 classmates	case
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 classmates	det
6	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 classmates	amod
7	classmates	classmate	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 associate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	associate	to-infinitive						with any new classmates	vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Patient with classmate=Co-Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Continued contact at break times and weekends

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Continued	continue	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 contact	amod
2	contact	contact	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	at	at	ADP	_	5 times	case
4	break	break	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 times	compound
5	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 contact	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 weekends	cc
7	weekends	weekend	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 times	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	continue	participle							vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/e3/