Exam question 1 · Hair, nails and ears

Identify the principal reason for which cotton buds are not to be inserted into the ear.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, not insert · To what, where: principal reason, cotton buds, ear

This is exam question 1 of lesson 77 «Hair, nails and ears» 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 inserted	obl
7	cotton	cotton	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 buds	compound
8	buds	bud	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 inserted	obl
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 inserted	aux:pass
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	13 inserted	advmod
11	to	to	PART	_	13 inserted	mark
12	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	13 inserted	aux:pass
13	inserted	insert	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
14	into	into	ADP	_	16 ear	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 ear	det
16	ear	ear	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 inserted	obl
17	.	.	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	not insert	present · passive	you not said here	cotton buds		the ear		for the principal reason	vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»

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

They cause the ears to stop producing wax entirely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 cause	nsubj
2	cause	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 ears	det
4	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 cause	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 stop	mark
6	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 cause	advcl
7	producing	produce	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 stop	xcomp
8	wax	wax	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 producing	obj
9	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	7 producing	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	cause	present	They	the ears		vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition ear=Patient
2	stop	to-infinitive	They not said here			vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
3	produce	gerund	They not said here	wax	entirely property	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wax=Result

Option 2

They remove all the wax the ear requires

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 remove	nsubj
2	remove	remove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 wax	det:predet
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 wax	det
5	wax	wax	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 remove	obj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ear	det
7	ear	ear	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 requires	nsubj
8	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 remove	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remove	present	They	all wax					vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wax=Theme
2	require	present	the ear						vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They push wax deeper and may injure the eardrum

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 push	nsubj
2	push	push	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	wax	wax	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 push	obj
4	deeper	deep	ADV	Degree=Cmp	2 push	advmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 injure	cc
6	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 injure	aux
7	injure	injure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 push	conj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 eardrum	det
9	eardrum	eardrum	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 injure	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	push	present	They	wax				deep property	vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wax=Theme
2	injure	may	They not said here	the eardrum					tree rules

Option 4

They are too soft to reach any wax at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 soft	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 soft	cop
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 soft	advmod
4	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 reach	mark
6	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 soft	advcl
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 wax	det
8	wax	wax	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reach	obj
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 all	case
10	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 reach	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	They					soft property	tree rules
2	reach	to-infinitive	They not said here	any wax		all			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent wax=Theme at all=Asset

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/77-hair-nails-and-ears/e1/