Exam question 3 · Regret, silly buys and peer pressure

Identify the course of action most consistent with prudence where a person offers to repay double a sum lent to him on the following day.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, person · What happens: identify, offer, repay, double, lend, follow · To what, where: course, sum, person

This is exam question 3 of lesson 10 «Regret, silly buys and peer pressure» of the money 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	3 course	det
3	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 action	case
5	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 course	nmod
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 consistent	advmod
7	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Identify	parataxis
8	with	with	ADP	_	9 prudence	case
9	prudence	prudence	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 consistent	obl
10	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	13 offers	advmod
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 person	det
12	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 offers	nsubj
13	offers	offer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 prudence	acl:relcl
14	to	to	PART	_	15 repay	mark
15	repay	repay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 offers	xcomp
16	double	double	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 repay	xcomp
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 sum	det
18	sum	sum	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 double	obj
19	lent	lend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	18 sum	acl
20	to	to	ADP	_	21 him	case
21	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 lent	obl
22	on	on	ADP	_	25 day	case
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 day	det
24	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	25 day	amod
25	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 lent	obl
26	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the course of action			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent course=Theme
2	offer	present	a person				tree rules
3	repay not said to happen	to-infinitive	a person not said here				tree rules
4	double	infinitive	a person not said here	a sum			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent sum=Patient
5	lend	participle		a sum not said here	person	day	vn give-13.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient
6	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «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

Lending one half of the sum as a precaution

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lending	lend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 half	nummod
3	half	half	NOUN	Number=Sing NumForm=Word NumType=Frac	1 Lending	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 sum	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sum	det
6	sum	sum	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 half	nmod
7	as	as	ADP	_	9 precaution	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 precaution	det
9	precaution	precaution	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Lending	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lend	gerund		one half of the sum				as a precaution	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent half=Theme

Option 2

Demanding a promise of triple repayment

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Demanding	demand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 promise	det
3	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Demanding	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 repayment	case
5	triple	triple	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 repayment	amod
6	repayment	repayment	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 promise	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	demand speech: request	gerund		a promise of triple repayment					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme promise=Precondition
2	promise			triple repayment					nom promise «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Declining the offer and informing a trusted adult

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Declining	decline	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 offer	det
3	offer	offer	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Declining	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 informing	cc
5	informing	inform	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Declining	conj
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 adult	det
7	trusted	trust	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 adult	amod
8	adult	adult	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 informing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	decline	gerund	the offer		vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent offer=Theme
2	inform speech: other	gerund		a trusted adult	vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent adult=Recipient
3	trust	participle			vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Lending the entire sum forthwith upon the promise of double

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lending	lend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sum	det
3	entire	entire	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 sum	amod
4	sum	sum	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Lending	obj
5	forthwith	forthwith	ADV	_	1 Lending	advmod
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 promise	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 promise	det
8	promise	promise	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Lending	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 double	case
10	double	double	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 promise	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lend	gerund		the entire sum				upon the promise of double; forthwith property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sum=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/money/10-regret-silly-buys-and-peer-pressure/e3/