Exam question 2 · Cold parents: always on the phone

Identify the request most likely to secure the attention of a parent preoccupied with a telephone.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, parent · What happens: identify, secure, preoccupy, attend · To what, where: request, attention, parent

This is exam question 2 of lesson 495 «Cold parents: always on the phone» 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	3 request	det
3	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 likely	advmod
5	likely	likely	ADV	_	1 Identify	advmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 secure	mark
7	secure	secure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Identify	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 attention	det
9	attention	attention	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 secure	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 parent	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 parent	det
12	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 attention	nmod
13	preoccupied	preoccupy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 parent	acl
14	with	with	ADP	_	16 telephone	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 telephone	det
16	telephone	telephone	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 preoccupied	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the request	likely property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent request=Theme
2	secure	to-infinitive	you not said here	the attention of a parent		vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition attention=Theme
3	preoccupy	participle		a parent not said here	with a telephone	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
4	attend		a parent			nom attention «cognition intransitive»: of=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

A threat to dispose of the telephone in water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 threat	det
2	threat	threat	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 dispose	mark
4	dispose	dispose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 threat	acl
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 telephone	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 telephone	det
7	telephone	telephone	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dispose	obl
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 water	case
9	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 telephone	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dispose	to-infinitive						of the telephone in water	vn addict-96 «NP V NP PP.Theme»: agent=Agent

Option 2

A silent withdrawal from the parent's presence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 withdrawal	det
2	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 withdrawal	amod
3	withdrawal	withdrawal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	from	from	ADP	_	8 presence	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 parent	det
6	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 presence	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 parent	case
8	presence	presence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 withdrawal	nmod

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

Option 3

A repetition of the request every two minutes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 repetition	det
2	repetition	repetition	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 minutes	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 request	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 request	det
5	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 repetition	nmod
6	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	8 minutes	det
7	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 minutes	nummod
8	minutes	minute	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	repeat		the request						nom repetition «event intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

A calm request to set it aside for one minute

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 request	det
2	calm	calm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 request	amod
3	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 set	mark
5	set	set	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 request	acl
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 set	obj
7	aside	aside	ADV	_	5 set	advmod
8	for	for	ADP	_	10 minute	case
9	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 minute	nummod
10	minute	minute	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 set	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	set	to-infinitive		request			minute	aside property	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient it=Result

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/495-cold-parents-always-on-the-phone/e2/