Exam question 1 · Grammar puzzles, part two

Render the active sentence "The cat chased the mouse" in the passive voice.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, cat · What happens: render, chase · To what, where: active sentence, mouse, passive voice · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 36 «Grammar puzzles, part two» 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	Render	render	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sentence	det
3	active	active	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 sentence	amod
4	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Render	obj
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 chased	punct
6	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 cat	det
7	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 chased	nsubj
8	chased	chase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Render	parataxis
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 mouse	det
10	mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 chased	obj
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 chased	punct
12	in	in	ADP	_	15 voice	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 voice	det
14	passive	passive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 voice	amod
15	voice	voice	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 chased	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Render	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	imperative	you not said here	the active sentence					tree rules
2	chase in a quote	past	the cat	the mouse		the passive voice			vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent mouse=Theme in voice=Trajectory

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

The cat was chased by the mouse

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 chased	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 chased	aux:pass
4	chased	chase	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 mouse	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 mouse	det
7	mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 chased	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chase	past · passive	the mouse	the cat					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The mouse was chased by the cat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 mouse	det
2	mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 chased	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 chased	aux:pass
4	chased	chase	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 cat	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 cat	det
7	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 chased	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chase	past · passive	the cat	the mouse					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The cat had been chasing the mouse

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 chasing	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 chasing	aux
4	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 chasing	aux
5	chasing	chase	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 mouse	det
7	mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 chasing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chase	past · perfect · progressive	the cat	the mouse					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouse=Theme

Option 4

The mouse chased the cat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 mouse	det
2	mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 chased	nsubj
3	chased	chase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cat	det
5	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 chased	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chase	past	the mouse	the cat					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cat=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/language/36-grammar-puzzles-part-two/e1/