Exam question 4 · Rich families: the big house, the nanny and never seeing Dad

Given that a pupil is told that she is «flexing» when mentioning a foreign holiday, ascertain the most appropriate conduct.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: pupil, foreign holiday · What happens: give, tell, flex, mention, ascertain · To what, where: pupil, appropriate conduct · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 491 «Rich families: the big house, the nanny and never seeing Dad» 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	Given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 told	mark
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 pupil	det
4	pupil	pupil	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 told	nsubj:pass
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 told	aux:pass
6	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Given	advcl
7	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 flexing	mark
8	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 flexing	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 flexing	aux
10	«	«	PUNCT	_	11 flexing	punct
11	flexing	flex	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 told	ccomp
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 flexing	punct
13	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	14 mentioning	advmod
14	mentioning	mention	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 flexing	advcl
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 holiday	det
16	foreign	foreign	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 holiday	amod
17	holiday	holiday	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 mentioning	obj
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 ascertain	punct
19	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 flexing	conj
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 conduct	det
21	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	22 appropriate	advmod
22	appropriate	appropriate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 conduct	amod
23	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 ascertain	obj
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Given	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	give	participle			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	tell speech: assert	present · passive		a pupil	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
3	flex in a quote	present · progressive	pupil		vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
4	mention speech: other	gerund	a foreign holiday		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
5	ascertain	infinitive	pupil not said here	the appropriate conduct	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conduct=Topic

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

To cease speaking to the classmate entirely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 cease	mark
2	cease	cease	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	speaking	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 cease	xcomp
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 classmate	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 classmate	det
6	classmate	classmate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 speaking	obl
7	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	3 speaking	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cease	to-infinitive							vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
2	speak speech: other	gerund						to the classmate; entirely property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to classmate=Co-Agent

Option 2

To describe the holiday at still greater length

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 describe	mark
2	describe	describe	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 holiday	det
4	holiday	holiday	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 describe	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	8 length	case
6	still	still	ADV	_	7 greater	advmod
7	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 length	amod
8	length	length	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 describe	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	to-infinitive		the holiday		greater length			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent holiday=Theme

Option 3

To deny that any such holiday ever took place

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 deny	mark
2	deny	deny	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 took	mark
4	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 holiday	det
5	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 holiday	amod
6	holiday	holiday	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 took	nsubj
7	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	8 took	advmod
8	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 deny	advcl
9	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 took	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deny	to-infinitive							vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	take	past	any such holiday	place			ever		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

To share briefly and ask about others' holidays

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 share	mark
2	share	share	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	briefly	briefly	ADV	_	2 share	advmod
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 ask	cc
5	ask	ask	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 share	conj
6	about	about	ADP	_	9 holidays	case
7	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 holidays	nmod:poss
8	'	's	PART	_	7 others	case
9	holidays	holiday	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 ask	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	share	to-infinitive						briefly property	tree rules
2	ask speech: ask	infinitive						about others's holidays	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V PP.topic whether S»: agent=Agent about holiday=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.

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