Exam question 2 · What a real friend is

Ascertain the appropriate conduct towards persons who habitually diminish one's self-regard.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, persons, one · What happens: ascertain, diminish, regard · To what, where: appropriate conduct, self regard

This is exam question 2 of lesson 485 «What a real friend is» 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	4 conduct	det
3	appropriate	appropriate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 conduct	amod
4	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	towards	towards	ADP	_	6 persons	case
6	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Ascertain	obl
7	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 diminish	nsubj
8	habitually	habitually	ADV	_	9 diminish	advmod
9	diminish	diminish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 persons	acl:relcl
10	one	one	PRON	Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 regard	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 one	case
12	self	self	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 regard	compound
13	-	-	PUNCT	_	12 self	punct
14	regard	regard	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 diminish	obj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the appropriate conduct	towards persons	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conduct=Topic
2	diminish	present	persons	one's self regard	habitually property	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer regard=Patient
3	regard		one			nom regard «cognition transitive»: poss=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

To adopt their conduct as one's own

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 adopt	mark
2	adopt	adopt	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 conduct	nmod:poss
4	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 adopt	obj
5	as	as	ADP	_	8 own	case
6	one	one	PRON	Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 own	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 one	case
8	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 adopt	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	adopt	to-infinitive		their conduct				as one's own	vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent conduct=Theme as own=Attribute
2	conduct		their = they						nom conduct «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To remain courteous whilst ceasing to seek their approval

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	3 courteous	mark
2	remain	remain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 courteous	cop
3	courteous	courteous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	_	5 ceasing	mark
5	ceasing	cease	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 courteous	advcl
6	to	to	PART	_	7 seek	mark
7	seek	seek	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 ceasing	xcomp
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 approval	nmod:poss
9	approval	approval	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 seek	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	to-infinitive			courteous property	tree rules
2	cease	gerund				vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
3	seek	to-infinitive		their approval		vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent approval=Theme
4	approve		their = they			nom approval «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

To retaliate by diminishing them in turn

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	by	by	SCONJ	_	4 diminishing	mark
4	diminishing	diminish	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 retaliate	advcl
5	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 diminishing	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 turn	case
7	turn	turn	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 diminishing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retaliate	to-infinitive							vn rebel-71.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	diminish	gerund		them = they		turn			vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer they=Patient

Option 4

To redouble one's efforts to secure their approval

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 redouble	mark
2	redouble	redouble	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 efforts	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 one	case
5	efforts	effort	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 redouble	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 secure	mark
7	secure	secure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 redouble	advcl
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 approval	nmod:poss
9	approval	approval	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 secure	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	redouble	to-infinitive		one's efforts	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent effort=Patient
2	secure	to-infinitive		efforts's approval	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition approval=Theme
3	approve		efforts = effort		nom approval «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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/485-what-a-real-friend-is/e2/