Exam question 1 · Three's a crowd, and the friend who picks someone else

Identify the principal reason, as established in the lesson, for which friendships of three persons are prone to difficulty.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, establish, be · To what, where: principal reason, lesson, prone

This is exam question 1 of lesson 478 «Three's a crowd, and the friend who picks someone else» 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	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 established	punct
6	as	as	SCONJ	_	7 established	mark
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 lesson	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 lesson	det
10	lesson	lesson	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 established	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 prone	punct
12	for	for	ADP	_	13 which	case
13	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	19 prone	nsubj
14	friendships	friendship	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 prone	nsubj
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 persons	case
16	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	17 persons	nummod
17	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 friendships	nmod
18	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 prone	cop
19	prone	prone	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
20	to	to	ADP	_	21 difficulty	case
21	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 prone	nmod
22	.	.	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	establish	participle		the principal reason not said here	the lesson		vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	is a	present		prone		to difficulty	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 · ← Mova's choice

Such friendships are prohibited by schools

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 friendships	amod
2	friendships	friendship	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 prohibited	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 prohibited	aux:pass
4	prohibited	prohibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 schools	case
6	schools	school	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 prohibited	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prohibit	present · passive	schools	Such friendships					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer subject=Theme

Option 2

Three persons cannot converse simultaneously

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 persons	nummod
2	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 converse	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 converse	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 converse	advmod
5	converse	converse	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	simultaneously	simultaneously	ADV	_	5 converse	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not converse speech: other	can	Three persons					simultaneously property	vn chit_chat-37.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

The third member is invariably disliked

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 member	det
2	third	third	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	3 member	amod
3	member	member	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 disliked	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 disliked	aux:pass
5	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	6 disliked	advmod
6	disliked	dislike	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dislike	present · passive		the third member				invariably property	vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Two members may readily pair off, excluding the third

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 members	nummod
2	members	member	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 pair	nsubj
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 pair	aux
4	readily	readily	ADV	_	5 pair	advmod
5	pair	pair	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	off	off	ADP	_	5 pair	compound:prt
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 excluding	punct
8	excluding	exclude	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 pair	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 third	det
10	third	third	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	8 excluding	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pair off	may	Two members					readily property	vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	exclude	gerund	Two members not said here	the third					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer third=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.

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