Exam question 1 · Brushing your teeth

Identify the principal reason for which the bedtime brushing of teeth is deemed the most important of the day.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, deem · To what, where: principal reason, bedtime brushing

This is exam question 1 of lesson 73 «Brushing your teeth» 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	13 deemed	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 brushing	det
8	bedtime	bedtime	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 brushing	compound
9	brushing	brushing	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 deemed	nsubj:pass
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 teeth	case
11	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 brushing	nmod
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 deemed	aux:pass
13	deemed	deem	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 important	det
15	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	16 important	advmod
16	important	important	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 deemed	conj
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 day	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 day	det
19	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 important	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	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	deem	present · passive		the bedtime brushing of teeth				for the principal reason	vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Attribute

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

Germs are asleep at night and easily removed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Germs	germ	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 asleep	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 asleep	cop
3	asleep	asleep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 night	case
5	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 asleep	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 removed	cc
7	easily	easily	ADV	_	8 removed	advmod
8	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 asleep	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Germs				night	asleep property	tree rules
2	remove	participle	Germs not said here					easily property	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Teeth are softer at night and easier to clean

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 softer	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 softer	cop
3	softer	soft	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 night	case
5	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 softer	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 easier	cc
7	easier	easy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 softer	conj
8	to	to	PART	_	9 clean	mark
9	clean	clean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 easier	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Teeth	night	soft property	tree rules
2	be		Teeth not said here			tree rules
3	clean	to-infinitive	Teeth not said here			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Less saliva is present during sleep to protect the teeth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Less	less	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 saliva	amod
2	saliva	saliva	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 present	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 present	cop
4	present	present	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	during	during	ADP	_	6 sleep	case
6	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 present	obl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 protect	mark
8	protect	protect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 present	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 teeth	det
10	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 protect	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Less saliva				during sleep	present property	tree rules
2	protect	to-infinitive	Less saliva not said here	the teeth					vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tooth=Beneficiary

Option 4

Toothpaste is effective solely in the dark

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Toothpaste	toothpaste	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 effective	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 effective	cop
3	effective	effective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	3 effective	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 dark	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 dark	det
7	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 effective	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Toothpaste			the dark		effective, solely property	tree rules

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/73-brushing-your-teeth/e1/