Exam question 3 · The best ever and shocking: adverts and headlines

Identify the principal reason for which newspaper headlines frequently represent events as larger than they were.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, newspaper headlines, headlines · What happens: identify, represent, be · To what, where: principal reason, events

This is exam question 3 of lesson 47 «The best ever and shocking: adverts and headlines» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 represent	obl
7	newspaper	newspaper	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 headlines	compound
8	headlines	headline	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 represent	nsubj
9	frequently	frequently	ADV	_	10 represent	advmod
10	represent	represent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
11	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 represent	obj
12	as	as	ADP	_	13 larger	case
13	larger	large	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	10 represent	ccomp
14	than	than	SCONJ	_	16 were	mark
15	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 were	nsubj
16	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 larger	advcl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	represent	present	newspaper headlines	events	for the principal reason; frequently property	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot event=Theme for which=Attribute
3	be	past	headlines = headline			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

To attract readers and thereby sell papers and obtain clicks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 attract	mark
2	attract	attract	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	readers	reader	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 attract	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 sell	cc
5	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	6 sell	advmod
6	sell	sell	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 attract	conj
7	papers	paper	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 sell	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 obtain	cc
9	obtain	obtain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 attract	conj
10	clicks	click	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 obtain	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	attract	to-infinitive	readers		vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reader=Patient
2	sell	infinitive	papers	thereby property	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent paper=Theme
3	obtain	present	clicks		vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset click=Theme

Option 2

To shorten the article that follows

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 shorten	mark
2	shorten	shorten	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 article	det
4	article	article	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 shorten	obj
5	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 follows	nsubj
6	follows	follow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 article	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shorten	to-infinitive		the article					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent article=Patient
2	follow	present	the article						vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

To compensate for errors in measurement

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 compensate	mark
2	compensate	compensate	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	4 errors	case
4	errors	error	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 compensate	obl
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 measurement	case
6	measurement	measurement	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 compensate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	compensate	to-infinitive				measurement		for errors	vn equip-13.4.2-1-1 «NP.theme V NP»: agent=Theme

Option 4

To comply with the regulations governing the press

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 comply	mark
2	comply	comply	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	with	with	ADP	_	5 regulations	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 regulations	det
5	regulations	regulation	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 comply	obl
6	governing	govern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 regulations	acl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 press	det
8	press	press	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 governing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	comply	to-infinitive						with the regulations	tree rules
2	govern	gerund	the regulations not said here	the press					vn supervision-95.2.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent press=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/47-the-best-ever-and-shocking-adverts-and-headlines/e3/