Exam question 3 · Neighbours who don't speak and the friendly shopkeeper

Ascertain the arrangement made by the shopkeeper upon apprehending a child in the act of stealing a chocolate bar.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, act · What happens: ascertain, make, apprehend, steal · To what, where: arrangement, child, act, chocolate bar

This is exam question 3 of lesson 483 «Neighbours who don't speak and the friendly shopkeeper» 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	3 arrangement	det
3	arrangement	arrangement	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 arrangement	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 shopkeeper	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 shopkeeper	det
7	shopkeeper	shopkeeper	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 made	obl
8	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	9 apprehending	mark
9	apprehending	apprehend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 made	advcl
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 child	det
11	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 apprehending	obj
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 act	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 act	det
14	act	act	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 apprehending	obl
15	of	of	SCONJ	_	16 stealing	mark
16	stealing	steal	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 act	acl
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 bar	det
18	chocolate	chocolate	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 bar	compound
19	bar	bar	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 stealing	obj
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the arrangement			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent arrangement=Topic
2	make	participle		the arrangement not said here		by the shopkeeper	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
3	apprehend	gerund		a child	the act		vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer child=Stimulus
4	steal	gerund	the act not said here	a chocolate bar			vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location bar=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

The child was to be reported forthwith to the police

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 child	det
2	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reported	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 reported	aux:pass
4	to	to	PART	_	6 reported	mark
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 reported	aux:pass
6	reported	report	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	forthwith	forthwith	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 reported	xcomp
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 police	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 police	det
10	police	police	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 forthwith	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	report	past · passive		the child				forthwith property	vn prosecute-33.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 2

The child was to retain the item without consequence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 child	det
2	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 retain	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 retain	cop
4	to	to	PART	_	5 retain	mark
5	retain	retain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 item	det
7	item	item	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 retain	obj
8	without	without	ADP	_	9 consequence	case
9	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 retain	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the child					without consequence; retain property	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The child was to be excluded from the shop permanently thereafter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 child	det
2	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 excluded	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 excluded	aux:pass
4	to	to	PART	_	6 excluded	mark
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 excluded	aux:pass
6	excluded	exclude	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	from	from	ADP	_	9 shop	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 shop	det
9	shop	shop	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 excluded	obl
10	permanently	permanently	ADV	_	6 excluded	advmod
11	thereafter	thereafter	ADV	_	6 excluded	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exclude	past · passive		the child		the shop		permanently, thereafter property	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Beneficiary from shop=Eventuality

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The child was to sweep the shop each Saturday for one month

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 child	det
2	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sweep	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 sweep	cop
4	to	to	PART	_	5 sweep	mark
5	sweep	sweep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 shop	det
7	shop	shop	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sweep	obj
8	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	9 Saturday	det
9	Saturday	Saturday	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 sweep	obl:unmarked
10	for	for	ADP	_	12 month	case
11	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 month	nummod
12	month	month	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sweep	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the child				month; saturday	sweep 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.

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