Test 17 · Trusted adults and asking for help

heard a kid told the teacher something bad was going on at home and nothing happened, so telling's pointless

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: kid, something, nothing · What happens: hear, tell, go on, happen · To what, where: home · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 17 of lesson 56 «Trusted adults and asking for help» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school. 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	heard	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 told	ccomp
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 kid	det
3	kid	kid	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 told	nsubj
4	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 something	det
6	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 something	compound
7	something	something	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	10 going	nsubj
8	bad	bad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 something	amod
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 going	aux
10	going	go	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 told	ccomp
11	on	on	ADP	_	10 going	compound:prt
12	at	at	ADP	_	13 home	case
13	home	home	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 going	obl
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 happened	cc
15	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	16 happened	nsubj
16	happened	happen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 home	conj
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 telling	punct
18	so	so	ADV	_	19 telling	advmod
19	telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 told	ccomp
20	's	's	PART	_	19 telling	case
21	pointless	pointless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 telling	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	hear	past				vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer
2	tell speech: assert	past	a kid			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	go on	past · progressive	something	home		vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at home=Location
4	happen	past	nothing			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	tell speech: assert	gerund			pointless property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «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

It proves adults never help

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 proves	nsubj
2	proves	prove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 proves	obj
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 help	advmod
5	help	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 proves	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prove	present	It	adults					vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent adult=Attribute clause=Theme
2	not help	present							vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent

Option 2

It means you should never tell anyone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 means	nsubj
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 tell	nsubj
4	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 tell	aux
5	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	6 tell	advmod
6	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 means	ccomp
7	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	6 tell	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	not tell speech: assert	should	you		anyone				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent anyone=Recipient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Not true; if one trusted adult does not help, tell another until someone does

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	2 true	advmod
2	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
3	;	;	PUNCT	_	12 tell	punct
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	10 help	mark
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 adult	nummod
6	trusted	trust	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 adult	amod
7	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 help	nsubj
8	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 help	aux
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 help	advmod
10	help	help	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 tell	advcl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 help	punct
12	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 true	parataxis
13	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	12 tell	obj
14	until	until	SCONJ	_	16 does	mark
15	someone	someone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	16 does	nsubj
16	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 tell	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	trust	participle			vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	not help a condition, not said to happen	present · do-support	one trusted adult		vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent
3	tell speech: assert	infinitive		another	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent another=Recipient
4	do	present	someone		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

It shows telling only makes things worse at home, so it's better to keep quiet about it

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 shows	nsubj
2	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 makes	csubj
4	only	only	ADV	_	5 makes	advmod
5	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 shows	ccomp
6	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 makes	obj
7	worse	bad	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 makes	xcomp
8	at	at	ADP	_	9 home	case
9	home	home	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 worse	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 better	punct
11	so	so	ADV	_	14 better	advmod
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 better	expl
13	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 better	cop
14	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 shows	parataxis
15	to	to	PART	_	16 keep	mark
16	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 better	csubj
17	quiet	quiet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 keep	xcomp
18	about	about	ADP	_	19 it	case
19	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 keep	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	show	present	It			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	tell speech: assert	gerund				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	make	present	telling	things	bad property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset thing=Product
4	is	present			good property	tree rules
5	keep	to-infinitive			about home; quiet property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent about it=Location

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/56-trusted-adults-and-asking-for-help/t17/