Test 5 · Bills: rent, mortgage, energy, water, phone, council tax

What would happen if a family just stopped paying council tax?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: family · What happens: happen, stop, pay · To what, where: council tax

This is test 5 of lesson 21 «Bills: rent, mortgage, energy, water, phone, council tax» of the money course of Mova's primary school. 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	8 stopped	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 family	det
6	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 stopped	nsubj
7	just	just	ADV	_	8 stopped	advmod
8	stopped	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
9	paying	pay	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 stopped	xcomp
10	council	council	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 tax	compound
11	tax	tax	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 paying	obj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	happen	would			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	stop a condition, not said to happen	past	a family		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
3	pay	gerund	a family not said here	council tax	vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tax=Asset

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 right answer

They'd get reminders and fines, and the law can make them pay

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 get	nsubj
2	'd	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 get	aux
3	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	reminders	reminder	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 get	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 fines	cc
6	fines	fine	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 reminders	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 make	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 make	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 law	det
10	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 make	nsubj
11	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 make	aux
12	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 get	conj
13	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 make	obj
14	pay	pay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 make	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	get	would	They	reminders and fines	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer reminder=Stimulus
2	make	can	the law	reminders = reminder	tree rules
3	pay	infinitive	reminders = reminder not said here		vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Only their own bin would be skipped, nothing else

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	7 skipped	advmod
2	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 bin	nmod:poss
3	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 bin	amod
4	bin	bin	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 skipped	nsubj:pass
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 skipped	aux
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 skipped	aux:pass
7	skipped	skip	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 nothing	punct
9	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	7 skipped	obj
10	else	else	ADV	_	9 nothing	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	skip	would · passive		their own bin					tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Nothing at all, because paying council tax is optional for families

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	3 all	case
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	1 Nothing	nmod
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 optional	punct
5	because	because	SCONJ	_	10 optional	mark
6	paying	pay	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 optional	csubj
7	council	council	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 tax	compound
8	tax	tax	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 paying	obj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 optional	cop
10	optional	optional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Nothing	conj
11	for	for	ADP	_	12 families	case
12	families	family	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 optional	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pay	gerund		council tax					vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tax=Asset
2	is	present	paying					for families; optional property	tree rules

Option 4

The council would send them a refund instead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 council	det
2	council	council	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 send	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 send	aux
4	send	send	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 send	obj
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 refund	det
7	refund	refund	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 send	obj
8	instead	instead	ADV	_	4 send	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send	would	the council	them = they				instead property	vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Destination refund=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.

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