Exam question 4 · Neighbours who don't speak and the friendly shopkeeper

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning a neighbour who habitually complains.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts, neighbour · What happens: select, establish, concern, complain · To what, where: response, neighbour

This is exam question 4 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 neighbour	det
11	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 complains	nsubj
13	habitually	habitually	ADV	_	14 complains	advmod
14	complains	complain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 neighbour	acl:relcl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	a neighbour		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus neighbour=Experiencer
4	complain speech: other	present	a neighbour		habitually property	vn complain-37.8 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

Her complaints prove her to be an enemy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 complaints	nmod:poss
2	complaints	complaint	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 prove	nsubj
3	prove	prove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 prove	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	8 enemy	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 enemy	cop
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 enemy	det
8	enemy	enemy	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 prove	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	prove	present	Her complaints	her = she	vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme
2	is a	to-infinitive	Her complaints not said here	a enemy	tree rules
3	complain		Her = she		nom complaint «state intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

She may nonetheless act with great kindness in an emergency

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 act	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 act	aux
3	nonetheless	nonetheless	ADV	_	4 act	advmod
4	act	act	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 kindness	case
6	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 kindness	amod
7	kindness	kindness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 act	obl
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 emergency	case
9	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 emergency	det
10	emergency	emergency	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 act	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	may	She			a emergency		with great kindness; nonetheless property	vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Such persons are incapable of kindness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 persons	amod
2	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 incapable	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 incapable	cop
4	incapable	incapable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 kindness	case
6	kindness	kindness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 incapable	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Such persons					of kindness; incapable property	tree rules

Option 4

She ought to be excluded from the community

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 excluded	nsubj
2	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 excluded	aux
3	to	to	PART	_	5 excluded	mark
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 excluded	aux:pass
5	excluded	exclude	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 community	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 community	det
8	community	community	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 excluded	obl

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

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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