Exam question 4 · Puns and jokes that need a pun

Ascertain the two senses operative in the statement that a book on anti-gravity is "impossible to put down".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, book · What happens: ascertain, be, put down · To what, where: senses operative, statement · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 28 «Puns and jokes that need a pun» of the language 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	5 operative	det
3	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 senses	nummod
4	senses	sens	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 operative	compound
5	operative	operative	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 statement	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 statement	det
8	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obl
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	16 impossible	mark
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 book	det
11	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 impossible	nsubj
12	on	on	ADP	_	13 anti-gravity	case
13	anti-gravity	anti-gravity	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 book	nmod
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 impossible	cop
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 impossible	punct
16	impossible	impossible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Ascertain	parataxis
17	to	to	PART	_	18 put	mark
18	put	put	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 impossible	xcomp
19	down	down	ADP	_	18 put	compound:prt
20	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 impossible	punct
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the senses operative	the statement		tree rules
2	is in a quote	present	a book on anti-gravity			impossible property	tree rules
3	put down in a quote	to-infinitive	a book on anti-gravity not said here				vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent

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 · ✓ the right answer

That it is engrossing to read and that it would literally float

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 engrossing	nsubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 engrossing	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 engrossing	aux
4	engrossing	engross	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 read	mark
6	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 engrossing	xcomp
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 float	cc
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	12 float	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 float	nsubj
10	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 float	aux
11	literally	literally	ADV	_	12 float	advmod
12	float	float	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 read	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	engross	present · progressive	That		tree rules
2	read	to-infinitive	That not said here		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	float	would	it	literally property	vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

That it is heavy to lift and that it is excessively expensive to purchase

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 heavy	nsubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 heavy	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 heavy	cop
4	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 lift	mark
6	lift	lift	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 heavy	xcomp
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 expensive	cc
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	12 expensive	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 expensive	nsubj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 expensive	cop
11	excessively	excessively	ADV	_	12 expensive	advmod
12	expensive	expensive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 heavy	conj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 purchase	mark
14	purchase	purchase	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 expensive	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	That	heavy property	tree rules
2	lift	to-infinitive	That not said here		vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	is	present	it	excessively, expensive property	tree rules
4	purchase	to-infinitive			vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset

Option 3

That it is boring and that it is short

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 boring	nsubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 boring	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 boring	cop
4	boring	boring	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 short	cc
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 short	mark
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 short	nsubj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 short	cop
9	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 boring	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	That					boring property	tree rules
2	is	present	it					short property	tree rules

Option 4

That it is lost and that it is stolen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 lost	nsubj:pass
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 lost	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 lost	aux:pass
4	lost	lose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 stolen	cc
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 stolen	mark
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 stolen	nsubj:pass
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 stolen	aux:pass
9	stolen	steal	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 lost	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	present · passive		That					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality
2	steal	present · passive		it					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=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.

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