Test 18 · ★★ · Strangers and tricky people

my mate says u can tell a bad stranger cos they look scary and messy

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, u, they · What happens: say, tell, look · To what, where: bad stranger · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 18 · ★★ of lesson 58 «Strangers and tricky people» 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	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 mate	nmod:poss
2	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 says	nsubj
3	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	u	you	PRON	Abbr=Yes Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 tell	nsubj
5	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 tell	aux
6	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 says	ccomp
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 stranger	det
8	bad	bad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 stranger	amod
9	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 tell	iobj
10	cos	cos	SCONJ	_	12 look	mark
11	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 look	nsubj
12	look	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 tell	advcl
13	scary	scary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 look	xcomp
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 messy	cc
15	messy	messy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 scary	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	my mate			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	tell speech: assert	can	u	a bad stranger		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent stranger=Recipient
3	look	present	they		scary property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus

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

He is right, nice clothes mean safe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 mean	punct
5	nice	nice	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 clothes	amod
6	clothes	clothes	NOUN	Number=Ptan	7 mean	nsubj
7	mean	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	conj
8	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 mean	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	He					right property	tree rules
2	mean	present	nice clothes					safe property	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

Option 2

He is right, if they are wearing sunglasses and a hat pulled down low over their face

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 wearing	punct
5	if	if	SCONJ	_	8 wearing	mark
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 wearing	nsubj
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 wearing	aux
8	wearing	wear	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 right	parataxis
9	sunglasses	sunglasses	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 wearing	obj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 pulled	cc
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 hat	det
12	hat	hat	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 pulled	nsubj
13	pulled	pull	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 wearing	conj
14	down	down	ADV	_	13 pulled	advmod
15	low	low	ADV	Degree=Pos	13 pulled	advmod
16	over	over	ADP	_	18 face	case
17	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 face	nmod:poss
18	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 pulled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	He			right property	tree rules
2	wear a condition, not said to happen	present · progressive	they	sunglasses			vn wipe_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent sunglasses=Source
3	pull down	past	a hat		sunglasses's face	down, low property	vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

He is right, bad people look scary

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 look	punct
5	bad	bad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 people	amod
6	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 look	nsubj
7	look	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	conj
8	scary	scary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 look	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	He					right property	tree rules
2	look	present	bad people					scary property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Wrong; you cannot tell whether a person is safe just from how they look

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 tell	advcl
2	;	;	PUNCT	_	6 tell	punct
3	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 tell	nsubj
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 tell	aux
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 tell	advmod
6	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	11 safe	mark
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 person	det
9	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 safe	nsubj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 safe	cop
11	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 tell	ccomp
12	just	just	ADV	_	16 look	advmod
13	from	from	SCONJ	_	16 look	mark
14	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	16 look	advmod
15	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 look	nsubj
16	look	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 tell	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	not tell speech: assert	can	you		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	a person	safe property	tree rules
3	look	present	they		vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus

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/58-strangers-and-tricky-people/t18/