Exam question 4 · Cousins: like a sister, posh, or far away

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning cousins of markedly differing financial circumstances.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, cousins · What happens: select, establish, concern, differ · To what, where: response, financial circumstances

This is exam question 4 of lesson 510 «Cousins: like a sister, posh, or far away» 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	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 cousins	case
10	cousins	cousin	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 facts	nmod
11	of	of	SCONJ	_	13 differing	mark
12	markedly	markedly	ADV	_	13 differing	advmod
13	differing	differ	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 cousins	acl
14	financial	financial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 circumstances	amod
15	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 differing	obj
16	.	.	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				vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
4	differ	gerund	cousins not said here	financial circumstances	markedly property	tree rules

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 poorer cousin is necessarily the superior person

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 cousin	det
2	poorer	poor	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 cousin	amod
3	cousin	cousin	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 person	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 person	cop
5	necessarily	necessarily	ADV	_	8 person	advmod
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 person	det
7	superior	superior	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 person	amod
8	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the poorer cousin	the superior person				necessarily property	tree rules

Option 2

The wealthier cousin is necessarily the superior person

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 cousin	det
2	wealthier	wealthy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 cousin	amod
3	cousin	cousin	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 person	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 person	cop
5	necessarily	necessarily	ADV	_	8 person	advmod
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 person	det
7	superior	superior	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 person	amod
8	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the wealthier cousin	the superior person				necessarily property	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Cousins of differing means cannot be friends

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cousins	cousin	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 means	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	3 differing	case
3	differing	differing	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Cousins	nmod
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 friends	aux
6	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 friends	advmod
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 friends	cop
8	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 means	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	Cousins of differing						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	not is a	can		friends					tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Wealth confers no superior worth, though it may limit understanding

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wealth	wealth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 confers	nsubj
2	confers	confer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 worth	det
4	superior	superior	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 worth	amod
5	worth	worth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 confers	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 limit	punct
7	though	though	SCONJ	_	10 limit	mark
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 limit	nsubj
9	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 limit	aux
10	limit	limit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 confers	conj
11	understanding	understanding	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 limit	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confer	present	Wealth	no superior worth					tree rules
2	limit	may	Wealth	understanding					vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer understanding=Patient

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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