Exam question 2 · Thinking like a lifeguard

Identify the principal reason for which a short swim parallel to the shore is effective in escaping a rip.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, swim parallel · What happens: identify, be, escape · To what, where: principal reason, rip

This is exam question 2 of lesson 50 «Thinking like a lifeguard» 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	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 effective	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 parallel	det
8	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 swim	amod
9	swim	swim	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 parallel	compound
10	parallel	parallel	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 effective	nsubj
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 shore	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 shore	det
13	shore	shore	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 parallel	nmod
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 effective	cop
15	effective	effective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	acl
16	in	in	SCONJ	_	17 escaping	mark
17	escaping	escape	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 effective	advcl
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 rip	det
19	rip	rip	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 escaping	obj
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	is	present	a swim parallel to the shore		for the principal reason; effective property	tree rules
3	escape	gerund	a swim parallel to the shore not said here	a rip		vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme rip=Initial_Location

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

Lifeguards pull swimmers who swim sideways

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lifeguards	lifeguard	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pull	nsubj
2	pull	pull	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	swimmers	swimmer	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pull	obj
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 swim	nsubj
5	swim	swim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 swimmers	acl:relcl
6	sideways	sideways	ADV	_	5 swim	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull	present	Lifeguards	swimmers					vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent swimmer=Theme
2	swim	present	swimmers					sideways property	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Most rips are narrow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	2 rips	amod
2	rips	rip	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 narrow	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 narrow	cop
4	narrow	narrow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Most rips					narrow property	tree rules

Option 3

The sea is shallower along the shore

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sea	det
2	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 shallower	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 shallower	cop
4	shallower	shallow	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	along	along	ADP	_	7 shore	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 shore	det
7	shore	shore	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 shallower	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the sea					along the shore; shallow property	tree rules

Option 4

Rips weaken when swimmers turn sideways

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Rips	rip	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 weaken	nsubj
2	weaken	weaken	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	5 turn	advmod
4	swimmers	swimmer	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 turn	nsubj
5	turn	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 weaken	advcl
6	sideways	sideways	ADV	_	5 turn	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	weaken	present	Rips						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	turn	present	swimmers					sideways property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

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/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/e2/