Exam question 4 · Cold parents: always on the phone

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning parents who seldom speak.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts, parents · What happens: select, establish, concern, speak · To what, where: response, parents · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 concerning	obj
11	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 speak	nsubj
12	seldom	seldom	ADV	_	13 speak	advmod
13	speak	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 parents	acl:relcl
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	parents		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus parent=Experiencer
4	speak speech: other	present	parents		seldom property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: 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 · ✓ the right answer

Some express love through shared time rather than words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	3 love	det
2	express	express	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 love	amod
3	love	love	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	through	through	ADP	_	6 time	case
5	shared	share	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 time	amod
6	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 love	nmod
7	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	9 words	cc
8	than	than	ADP	_	7 rather	fixed
9	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 love	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	share	participle							tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

They speak seldom because their children are uninteresting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 speak	nsubj
2	speak	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	seldom	seldom	ADV	_	2 speak	advmod
4	because	because	SCONJ	_	8 uninteresting	mark
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 children	nmod:poss
6	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 uninteresting	nsubj
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 uninteresting	cop
8	uninteresting	uninteresting	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 speak	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	present	They					seldom property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	their children					uninteresting property	tree rules

Option 3

They are prohibited from speaking whilst engaged in fishing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 prohibited	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 prohibited	aux:pass
3	prohibited	prohibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	from	from	SCONJ	_	5 speaking	mark
5	speaking	speak	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 prohibited	advcl
6	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	_	7 engaged	mark
7	engaged	engage	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 speaking	xcomp
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 fishing	case
9	fishing	fishing	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 speaking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	roles by
1	prohibit	present · passive	They		vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	speak speech: other	gerund		fishing	tree rules
3	engage	participle			vn amalgamate-22.2-3-2 «NP V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

All of them are indifferent to the welfare of their children

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 indifferent	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	3 them	case
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 All	nmod
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 indifferent	cop
5	indifferent	indifferent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 welfare	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 welfare	det
8	welfare	welfare	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 indifferent	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 children	case
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 children	nmod:poss
11	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 welfare	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	All					to the welfare of their children; indifferent property	tree rules

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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