Exam question 4 · The United States: a short story

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the westward expansion of the United States.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern, expand · To what, where: response, westward expansion, United States

This is exam question 4 of lesson 38 «The United States: 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 expansion	det
11	westward	westward	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 expansion	amod
12	expansion	expansion	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 States	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 States	det
15	United	United	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 States	amod
16	States	State	PROPN	Number=Plur	12 expansion	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the westward expansion of the United States		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus expansion=Experiencer
4	expand			the United States		nom expansion «act 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

It was undertaken by France alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 undertaken	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 undertaken	aux:pass
3	undertaken	undertake	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 France	case
5	France	France	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 undertaken	obl
6	alone	alone	ADV	_	3 undertaken	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	undertake	past · passive	France	It				alone property	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Eventuality

Option 2

It occurred upon wholly uninhabited territory awaiting settlement

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 occurred	nsubj
2	occurred	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 territory	case
4	wholly	wholly	ADV	_	5 uninhabited	advmod
5	uninhabited	uninhabited	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 territory	amod
6	territory	territory	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 occurred	obl
7	awaiting	await	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 occurred	advcl
8	settlement	settlement	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 awaiting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occur	past	It			uninhabited territory			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon territory=Location
2	await	gerund		settlement					tree rules

Option 3

It was halted at the Mississippi River

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 halted	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 halted	aux:pass
3	halted	halt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	7 River	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 River	det
6	Mississippi	Mississippi	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 River	compound
7	River	River	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 halted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	halt	past · passive		It		the Mississippi River			vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It entailed the taking of lands belonging to Native nations

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 entailed	nsubj
2	entailed	entail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 taking	det
4	taking	taking	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 entailed	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 lands	case
6	lands	land	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 taking	nmod
7	belonging	belong	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 lands	acl
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 nations	case
9	Native	native	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 nations	amod
10	nations	nation	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 belonging	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	entail	past	It	the taking of lands		tree rules
2	belong	gerund	lands not said here		to Native nations	vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme
3	take			lands		nom taking «act transitive»: of=patient

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/history/38-the-united-states-a-short-story/e4/