Exam question 1 · Olympiad: decoding a short French text ★★★

Ascertain the activity undertaken by the writer of the postcard on the preceding day, as stated in the phrase "Hier, on a nagé dans la mer".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, undertake, precede, state · To what, where: activity, phrase

This is exam question 1 of lesson 39 «Olympiad: decoding a short French text ★★★» of the French 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 activity	det
3	activity	activity	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	undertaken	undertake	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 activity	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 writer	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 writer	det
7	writer	writer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 undertaken	obl:agent
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 postcard	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 postcard	det
10	postcard	postcard	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 writer	nmod
11	on	on	ADP	_	14 day	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 day	det
13	preceding	precede	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	14 day	amod
14	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 undertaken	obl
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 stated	punct
16	as	as	SCONJ	_	17 stated	mark
17	stated	state	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Ascertain	parataxis
18	in	in	ADP	_	20 phrase	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 phrase	det
20	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 stated	obl
21	"	"	PUNCT	_	22 Hier	punct
22	Hier	hi	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	20 phrase	amod
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	28 la	punct
24	on	on	SCONJ	_	28 la	mark
25	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	27 dans	det
26	nagé	nagé	ADJ	Degree=Pos	27 dans	amod
27	dans	dan	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 la	nsubj
28	la	la	X	Foreign=Yes	17 stated	parataxis
29	mer	mer	X	_	28 la	flat:foreign
30	"	"	PUNCT	_	28 la	punct
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the activity			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent activity=Topic
2	undertake	participle		the activity not said here		day	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
3	precede	gerund					vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme
4	state speech: other	participle			the phrase		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=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 · ← Mova's choice

Walking along the shore

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Walking	walk	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	along	along	ADP	_	4 shore	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 shore	det
4	shore	shore	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Walking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	walk	gerund				the shore			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along shore=Trajectory

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Swimming in the sea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Swimming	swim	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	in	in	ADP	_	4 sea	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sea	det
4	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Swimming	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swim	gerund				the sea			vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sea=Trajectory

Option 3

Sailing upon the sea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sailing	sail	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	upon	upon	ADP	_	4 sea	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sea	det
4	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Sailing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sail	gerund						upon the sea	vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Swimming with her mother

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Swimming	swim	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	with	with	ADP	_	4 mother	case
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 mother	nmod:poss
4	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Swimming	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swim	gerund						with her mother	vn swarm-47.5.1-1 «PP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with mother=Theme

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/french/39-olympiad-decoding-a-short-french-text/e1/