Exam question 4 · Keeping garden wildlife safe

Determine the conduct most likely to permit a child to observe garden wildlife at close quarters.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: determine, permit, observe · To what, where: conduct, child, garden wildlife, close quarters

This is exam question 4 of lesson 72 «Keeping garden wildlife safe» 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	Determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 conduct	det
3	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Determine	obj
4	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 likely	advmod
5	likely	likely	ADV	_	1 Determine	advmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 permit	mark
7	permit	permit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Determine	advcl
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 child	det
9	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 permit	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 observe	mark
11	observe	observe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 permit	xcomp
12	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 wildlife	compound
13	wildlife	wildlife	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 observe	obj
14	at	at	ADP	_	16 quarters	case
15	close	close	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 quarters	amod
16	quarters	quarter	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 observe	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here	the conduct		likely property	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conduct=Topic
2	permit	to-infinitive	you not said here	a child			vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer child=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality
3	observe not said to happen	to-infinitive	you not said here	garden wildlife	close quarters		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent wildlife=Topic

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

Calling loudly so the animals know one is present

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Calling	call	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 present	csubj
2	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	1 Calling	advmod
3	so	so	SCONJ	_	6 know	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 animals	det
5	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 know	nsubj
6	know	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Calling	advcl
7	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 know	obj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 present	cop
9	present	present	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	call	gerund			loudly property	vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	know	present	the animals	one		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer one=Stimulus
3	is	present	Calling		present property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Moving slowly and speaking softly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Moving	move	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	1 Moving	advmod
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 speaking	cc
4	speaking	speak	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Moving	conj
5	softly	softly	ADV	_	4 speaking	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	move	gerund						slowly property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme
2	speak speech: other	gerund						softly property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Clapping so that the animals remain still

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Clapping	clap	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	6 remain	mark
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	2 so	fixed
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 animals	det
5	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 remain	nsubj
6	remain	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Clapping	ccomp
7	still	still	ADV	_	6 remain	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	clap	gerund							tree rules
2	remain	present	the animals				still		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Running towards the animals with arms raised

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Running	run	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	towards	towards	ADP	_	4 animals	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 animals	det
4	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Running	obl
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 arms	case
6	arms	arm	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Running	obl
7	raised	raise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 arms	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run	gerund						towards the animals; with arms	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme towards animal=Destination
2	raise	participle		arms not said here					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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/72-keeping-garden-wildlife-safe/e4/