Exam question 3 · Mum's best friend and Dad's mate from work

Ascertain the most appropriate conduct of a person whose acquaintance repeatedly borrows money without repayment.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, acquaintance · What happens: ascertain, borrow, conduct · To what, where: appropriate conduct, money, person

This is exam question 3 of lesson 482 «Mum's best friend and Dad's mate from work» 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 conduct	det
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 appropriate	advmod
4	appropriate	appropriate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 conduct	amod
5	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 person	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 person	det
8	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 conduct	nmod
9	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	10 acquaintance	nmod:poss
10	acquaintance	acquaintance	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 borrows	nsubj
11	repeatedly	repeatedly	ADV	_	12 borrows	advmod
12	borrows	borrow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 person	acl:relcl
13	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 borrows	obj
14	without	without	ADP	_	15 repayment	case
15	repayment	repayment	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 borrows	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the appropriate conduct of a person		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conduct=Topic
2	borrow	present	acquaintance	money	without repayment; repeatedly property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Theme
3	conduct			a person		nom conduct «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

To pay the acquaintance's other debts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 pay	mark
2	pay	pay	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 acquaintance	det
4	acquaintance	acquaintance	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 debts	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 acquaintance	case
6	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 debts	amod
7	debts	debt	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pay	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pay	to-infinitive		the acquaintance's other debts					vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent debt=Asset

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To decline further loans

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 decline	mark
2	decline	decline	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 loans	amod
4	loans	loan	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 decline	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decline	to-infinitive		further loans					vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent loan=Theme

Option 3

To increase the sums lent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 increase	mark
2	increase	increase	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 lent	advcl
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sums	det
4	sums	sum	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 increase	obj
5	lent	lend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	increase	to-infinitive		the sums					vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer sum=Patient
2	lend	past							vn give-13.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent

Option 4

To lend in secret from one's family

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 lend	mark
2	lend	lend	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 secret	case
4	secret	secret	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lend	obl
5	from	from	ADP	_	8 family	case
6	one	one	PRON	Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 family	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 one	case
8	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lend	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lend	to-infinitive				secret		from one's family	vn give-13.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=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.

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