Exam question 3 · Shouty parents and bad days

Given that a child is afraid to return home on account of a parent's anger, ascertain the most appropriate course.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: child, parent · What happens: give, be, return, ascertain, account, anger · To what, where: account, appropriate course, anger

This is exam question 3 of lesson 494 «Shouty parents and bad days» 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 afraid	mark
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 child	det
4	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 afraid	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 afraid	cop
6	afraid	afraid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Given	advcl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 return	mark
8	return	return	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 afraid	xcomp
9	home	home	ADV	_	8 return	advmod
10	on	on	ADP	_	11 account	case
11	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 return	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	16 anger	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 parent	det
14	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 anger	nmod:poss
15	's	's	PART	_	14 parent	case
16	anger	anger	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 account	nmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 ascertain	punct
18	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 return	conj
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 course	det
20	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	21 appropriate	advmod
21	appropriate	appropriate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 course	amod
22	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 ascertain	obj
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Given	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	give	participle					vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	is	present	a child			afraid property	tree rules
3	return	to-infinitive	a child not said here		account of a parent's anger	home property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	ascertain	infinitive	a child not said here	the appropriate course			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent course=Topic
5	account			a parent's anger			nom account «communication transitive»: of=patient
6	anger		a parent				nom anger «feeling intransitive»: 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

To await improvement without speaking

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 await	mark
2	await	await	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	improvement	improvement	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 await	obj
4	without	without	SCONJ	_	5 speaking	mark
5	speaking	speak	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 await	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	await	to-infinitive		improvement					tree rules
2	speak speech: other	gerund							vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

To conceal the matter from every adult

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 conceal	mark
2	conceal	conceal	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 matter	det
4	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 conceal	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 adult	case
6	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 adult	det
7	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 conceal	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conceal	to-infinitive		the matter				from every adult	vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent matter=Patient from adult=Beneficiary

Option 3

To remain outdoors until after nightfall

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	outdoors	outdoors	ADV	_	2 remain	advmod
4	until	until	ADP	_	6 nightfall	case
5	after	after	ADP	_	6 nightfall	case
6	nightfall	nightfall	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 remain	obl

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

To inform a trusted adult or telephone Childline

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 inform	mark
2	inform	inform	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 Childline	advcl
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 adult	det
4	trusted	trust	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 adult	amod
5	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 inform	obj
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 telephone	cc
7	telephone	telephone	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 adult	conj
8	Childline	Childline	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	inform speech: other	to-infinitive			a trusted adult or telephone				vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent adult=Recipient
2	trust	participle							vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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/494-shouty-parents-and-bad-days/e3/