Exam question 2 · Rival teams and the older bully

Ascertain the most prudent course of action for a child whose ball has been propelled into a river flowing towards a weir.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, river · What happens: ascertain, propel, flow · To what, where: prudent course, ball, river

This is exam question 2 of lesson 472 «Rival teams and the older bully» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 course	det
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 prudent	advmod
4	prudent	prudent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 course	amod
5	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 action	case
7	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 course	nmod
8	for	for	ADP	_	10 child	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 child	det
10	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obl
11	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	12 ball	nmod:poss
12	ball	ball	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 propelled	nsubj:pass
13	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 propelled	aux
14	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	15 propelled	aux:pass
15	propelled	propel	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 child	acl:relcl
16	into	into	ADP	_	18 river	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 river	det
18	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 propelled	obl
19	flowing	flow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	18 river	acl
20	towards	towards	ADP	_	22 weir	case
21	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 weir	det
22	weir	weir	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 flowing	obl
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the prudent course of action		for a child	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Precondition course=Theme for child=Beneficiary
2	propel	present · perfect · passive		ball	a river		tree rules
3	flow	gerund	a river not said here			towards a weir	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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

To pursue the ball along the river to the weir

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 pursue	mark
2	pursue	pursue	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 ball	det
4	ball	ball	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pursue	obj
5	along	along	ADP	_	7 river	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 river	det
7	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pursue	obl
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 weir	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 weir	det
10	weir	weir	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pursue	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pursue	to-infinitive		the ball		the river		to the weir	vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent ball=Theme along river=Trajectory

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To refrain from entering the water and to inform an adult

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 refrain	mark
2	refrain	refrain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	SCONJ	_	4 entering	mark
4	entering	enter	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 refrain	advcl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 water	det
6	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 entering	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 inform	cc
8	to	to	PART	_	9 inform	mark
9	inform	inform	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 refrain	conj
10	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 adult	det
11	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 inform	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	refrain	to-infinitive			vn refrain-69 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	enter	gerund	the water		vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme water=Destination
3	inform speech: other	to-infinitive		a adult	vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent adult=Recipient

Option 3

To enter the water promptly in order to recover it before the weir

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 enter	mark
2	enter	enter	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 water	det
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 enter	obj
5	promptly	promptly	ADV	_	2 enter	advmod
6	in	in	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	9 recover	mark
7	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 in	fixed
8	to	to	PART	_	9 recover	mark
9	recover	recover	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 enter	advcl
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 recover	obj
11	before	before	ADP	_	13 weir	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 weir	det
13	weir	weir	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 recover	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enter	to-infinitive		the water				promptly property	vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme water=Destination
2	recover	to-infinitive		water			before the weir		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 4

To await its return to the bank

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 await	mark
2	await	await	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 return	nmod:poss
4	return	return	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 await	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 bank	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bank	det
7	bank	bank	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 await	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	await	to-infinitive		its return				to the bank	tree rules
2	return		its = it						nom return «communication intransitive»: 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/472-rival-teams-and-the-older-bully/e2/