Exam question 4 · Enemies who became friends, and ones who never did

Ascertain the most prudent conduct towards a peer who is agreeable in private but unkind in company.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, peer · What happens: ascertain, be · To what, where: prudent conduct, private, company

This is exam question 4 of lesson 484 «Enemies who became friends, and ones who never did» 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 prudent	advmod
4	prudent	prudent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 conduct	amod
5	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
6	towards	towards	ADP	_	8 peer	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 peer	det
8	peer	peer	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obl
9	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 agreeable	nsubj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 agreeable	cop
11	agreeable	agreeable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 peer	acl:relcl
12	in	in	ADP	_	13 private	case
13	private	private	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 agreeable	obl
14	but	but	CCONJ	_	15 unkind	cc
15	unkind	unkind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 agreeable	conj
16	in	in	ADP	_	17 company	case
17	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 unkind	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the prudent conduct		towards a peer	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conduct=Topic
2	is	present	a peer		private	agreeable property	tree rules
3	be		a peer not said here		company		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

To confide in her more fully in order to win her

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 confide	mark
2	confide	confide	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 her	case
4	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 confide	obl
5	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 fully	advmod
6	fully	fully	ADV	_	2 confide	advmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 order	case
8	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 confide	obl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 win	mark
10	win	win	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 confide	advcl
11	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 win	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confide speech: other	to-infinitive				order		in her = she; fully property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	win	to-infinitive		her = she					vn succeed-74-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Eventuality

Option 2

To retaliate in company

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 retaliate	mark
2	retaliate	retaliate	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 company	case
4	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 retaliate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retaliate	to-infinitive				company			vn rebel-71.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

To remain courteous whilst withholding confidences

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 remain	mark
2	remain	remain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	courteous	courteous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 remain	xcomp
4	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	_	6 confidences	case
5	withholding	withholding	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 confidences	compound
6	confidences	confidence	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 courteous	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	to-infinitive						courteous property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

To imitate her conduct

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 imitate	mark
2	imitate	imitate	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 conduct	nmod:poss
4	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 imitate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	imitate	to-infinitive		her conduct					vn patent-101 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conduct=Theme
2	conduct		her = she						nom conduct «act transitive»: 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.

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