Exam question 4 · Comfortable families: enough, but not everything

Identify the most considerate manner of offering assistance to a friend of lesser means.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, considerate manner · What happens: identify, offer, mean · To what, where: assistance, friend

This is exam question 4 of lesson 490 «Comfortable families: enough, but not everything» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 manner	det
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 considerate	advmod
4	considerate	considerate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 manner	amod
5	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 means	nsubj
6	of	of	SCONJ	_	7 offering	mark
7	offering	offer	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 manner	acl
8	assistance	assistance	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 offering	obj
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 friend	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 friend	det
11	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 offering	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 lesser	case
13	lesser	less	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	11 friend	nmod
14	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	ccomp
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	offer	gerund	the considerate manner not said here	assistance	a friend of lesser	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent assistance=Theme to friend=Goal
3	mean	present	the considerate manner			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: 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

Through the friend's teacher, before the class

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Through	through	ADP	_	5 teacher	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 friend	det
3	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 teacher	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 friend	case
5	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 class	punct
7	before	before	ADP	_	9 class	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 class	det
9	class	class	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 teacher	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Quietly, permitting the friend to decline

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Quietly	quietly	ADV	_	3 permitting	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Quietly	punct
3	permitting	permit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 friend	det
5	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 permitting	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 decline	mark
7	decline	decline	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 permitting	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	permit	gerund		the friend				quietly property	vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent friend=Theme
2	decline	to-infinitive							vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 3

Repeatedly, whether or not it is wanted

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Repeatedly	repeatedly	ADV	_	8 wanted	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Repeatedly	punct
3	whether	whether	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	8 wanted	mark
4	or	or	CCONJ	_	3 whether	fixed
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	3 whether	fixed
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 wanted	nsubj:pass
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 wanted	aux:pass
8	wanted	want	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	present · passive		it				repeatedly property	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme

Option 4

Publicly, so that all may observe it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Publicly	publicly	ADV	_	7 observe	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Publicly	punct
3	so	so	ADV	_	7 observe	advmod
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 observe	mark
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 observe	nsubj
6	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 observe	aux
7	observe	observe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 observe	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	observe	may	all	it				publicly property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic

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/490-comfortable-families-enough-but-not-everything/e4/