Exam question 3 · Britain and Ireland: a short story

Ascertain the principal cause of the Great Famine in Ireland commencing in eighteen hundred and forty-five.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal cause · What happens: ascertain, commence, cause · To what, where: principal cause, eighteen hundred, Great Famine

This is exam question 3 of lesson 37 «Britain and Ireland: a short story» of the history 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	4 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 Famine	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Famine	det
7	Great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 Famine	amod
8	Famine	Famine	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 Ireland	case
10	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Famine	nmod
11	commencing	commence	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 cause	acl
12	in	in	ADV	_	14 hundred	advmod
13	eighteen	eighteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 hundred	compound
14	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 commencing	obj
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 forty	cc
16	forty	forty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 hundred	conj
17	-	-	PUNCT	_	18 five	punct
18	five	five	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 hundred	conj
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the Great Famine in Ireland	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cause=Topic
2	commence	gerund	the principal cause of the Great Famine in Ireland not said here	eighteen hundred	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hundred=Eventuality
3	cause			the Great Famine in Ireland	nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient

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

An invasion by the Normans

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 invasion	det
2	invasion	invasion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	by	by	ADP	_	5 Normans	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Normans	det
5	Normans	Norman	PROPN	Number=Plur	2 invasion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	invade		the Normans						nom invasion «act transitive»: by=agent

Option 2

A prolonged drought throughout Europe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 drought	det
2	prolonged	prolong	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 drought	amod
3	drought	drought	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	throughout	throughout	ADP	_	5 Europe	case
5	Europe	Europe	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 drought	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prolong	participle							vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A disease destroying the potato crop

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 disease	det
2	disease	disease	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	destroying	destroy	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 disease	acl
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 crop	det
5	potato	potato	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 crop	compound
6	crop	crop	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 destroying	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	destroy	gerund	a disease not said here	the potato crop					vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crop=Patient

Option 4

A great earthquake in Dublin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 earthquake	det
2	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 earthquake	amod
3	earthquake	earthquake	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 Dublin	case
5	Dublin	Dublin	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 earthquake	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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.

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