Exam question 2 · Needles and brave faces

Identify the principal reason for which deliberate slow exhalation may diminish the pain of an injection.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, deliberate slow exhalation · What happens: identify, diminish, pain · To what, where: principal reason, pain, injection

This is exam question 2 of lesson 32 «Needles and brave faces» of the medicine 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	11 diminish	obl
7	deliberate	deliberate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 exhalation	amod
8	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 exhalation	amod
9	exhalation	exhalation	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 diminish	nsubj
10	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 diminish	aux
11	diminish	diminish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 pain	det
13	pain	pain	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 diminish	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 injection	case
15	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 injection	det
16	injection	injection	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 pain	nmod
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	diminish	may	deliberate slow exhalation	the pain of a injection	for the principal reason	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer pain=Patient
3	pain			a injection		nom pain «state 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 thickens the skin of the arm

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 thickens	nsubj
2	thickens	thicken	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 skin	det
4	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 thickens	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 arm	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 arm	det
7	arm	arm	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 skin	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	thicken	present	It	the skin of the arm					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent skin=Patient

Option 2

It numbs the arm by cooling the blood

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 numbs	nsubj
2	numbs	numb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 arm	det
4	arm	arm	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 numbs	obj
5	by	by	SCONJ	_	6 cooling	mark
6	cooling	cool	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 numbs	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 blood	det
8	blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 cooling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	numb	present	It	the arm					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus arm=Experiencer
2	cool	gerund		the blood					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent blood=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It calms the bodily response to fear

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 calms	nsubj
2	calms	calm	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 response	det
4	bodily	bodily	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 response	amod
5	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 calms	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 fear	mark
7	fear	fear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 response	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	calm	present	It	the bodily response					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus response=Experiencer
2	fear	to-infinitive		the bodily response not said here					vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 4

It reduces the volume of blood

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 reduces	nsubj
2	reduces	reduce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 volume	det
4	volume	volume	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reduces	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 blood	case
6	blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 volume	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reduce	present	It	the volume of blood					vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer volume=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/medicine/32-needles-and-brave-faces/e2/