Exam question 2 · Picking teams and being picked last

Which of the following methods of team formation most effectively avoids a public ranking of pupils?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, avoid, rank · To what, where: public ranking, pupils

This is exam question 2 of lesson 66 «Picking teams and being picked last» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 avoids	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 methods	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 methods	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 methods	amod
5	methods	method	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Which	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 formation	case
7	team	team	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 formation	compound
8	formation	formation	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 methods	nmod
9	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	10 effectively	advmod
10	effectively	effectively	ADV	_	11 avoids	advmod
11	avoids	avoid	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 ranking	det
13	public	public	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 ranking	amod
14	ranking	ranking	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 avoids	obj
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 pupils	case
16	pupils	pupil	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 ranking	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	11 avoids	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	avoid	present	a public ranking of pupils	effectively property	vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent ranking=Location
3	rank		pupils		nom ranking «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

Selection by the tallest pupils

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Selection	selection	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	by	by	ADP	_	5 pupils	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 pupils	det
4	tallest	tall	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 pupils	amod
5	pupils	pupil	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Selection	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	select		the tallest pupils						nom selection «act transitive»: by=agent

Option 2

Selection by the two most able pupils

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Selection	selection	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	by	by	ADP	_	7 pupils	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 pupils	det
4	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 pupils	nummod
5	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	6 able	advmod
6	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 pupils	amod
7	pupils	pupil	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Selection	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	select		the two able pupils						nom selection «act transitive»: by=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Allocation by counting off or by a teacher's list

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Allocation	allocation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	by	by	SCONJ	_	3 counting	mark
3	counting	count	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Allocation	acl
4	off	off	ADP	_	3 counting	compound:prt
5	or	or	CCONJ	_	10 list	cc
6	by	by	ADP	_	10 list	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 teacher	det
8	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 list	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 teacher	case
10	list	list	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Allocation	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count off	gerund	Allocation or a teacher's list not said here						vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus
2	list		a teacher						nom list «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

Selection by the pupils who arrived first

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Selection	selection	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	by	by	ADP	_	4 pupils	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 pupils	det
4	pupils	pupil	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Selection	nmod
5	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 arrived	nsubj
6	arrived	arrive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 pupils	acl:relcl
7	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	6 arrived	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	arrive	past	the pupils					first property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	select		the pupils						nom selection «act transitive»: by=agent

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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