Exam question 4 · Saving for holidays and big things

Identify the principal advantage of accumulating savings prior to a major purchase, as opposed to borrowing upon a credit card.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, accumulate, oppose, borrow · To what, where: principal advantage

This is exam question 4 of lesson 25 «Saving for holidays and big things» 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	4 advantage	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 advantage	amod
4	advantage	advantage	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 savings	case
6	accumulating	accumulate	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 savings	amod
7	savings	savings	NOUN	Number=Ptan	4 advantage	nmod
8	prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	12 purchase	case
9	to	to	ADP	_	8 prior	fixed
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 purchase	det
11	major	major	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 purchase	amod
12	purchase	purchase	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 opposed	punct
14	as	as	SCONJ	_	15 opposed	mark
15	opposed	oppose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	parataxis
16	to	to	SCONJ	_	17 borrowing	mark
17	borrowing	borrow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 opposed	advcl
18	upon	upon	ADP	_	21 card	case
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 card	det
20	credit	credit	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 card	compound
21	card	card	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 borrowing	obl
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal advantage of accumulating savings	prior a major purchase	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent advantage=Theme
2	accumulate	gerund				vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	oppose	participle				vn amalgamate-22.2-3 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient
4	borrow	gerund			upon a credit card	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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 guaranteed reduction of the price by one half

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reduction	det
2	guaranteed	guarantee	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reduction	amod
3	reduction	reduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 price	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 price	det
6	price	price	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reduction	nmod
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 half	case
8	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 half	nummod
9	half	half	NOUN	Number=Sing NumForm=Word NumType=Frac	3 reduction	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	guarantee	participle							vn ensure-99 «NP V that S»: agent=Precondition
2	reduce		one half	the price					nom reduction «act transitive»: of=patient by=agent

Option 2

The receipt of a discount from the issuer of the credit card

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 receipt	det
2	receipt	receipt	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 discount	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 discount	det
5	discount	discount	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 receipt	nmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 issuer	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 issuer	det
8	issuer	issuer	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 discount	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	12 card	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 card	det
11	credit	credit	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 card	compound
12	card	card	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 issuer	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	receipt			a discount from the issuer of the credit card					nom receipt «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The avoidance of interest and of continuing repayments after the purchase

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 avoidance	det
2	avoidance	avoidance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 interest	case
4	interest	interest	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 avoidance	nmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 repayments	cc
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 repayments	case
7	continuing	continue	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 repayments	amod
8	repayments	repayment	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 avoidance	conj
9	after	after	ADP	_	11 purchase	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 purchase	det
11	purchase	purchase	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 repayments	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	continue	gerund							vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	avoid			interest					nom avoidance «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The exemption of the purchase from value added tax

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 exemption	det
2	exemption	exemption	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 tax	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 purchase	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 purchase	det
5	purchase	purchase	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exemption	nmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	7 value	case
7	value	value	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 purchase	nmod
8	added	add	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 tax	amod
9	tax	tax	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	add speech: assert	participle							vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	exempt			the purchase from value					nom exemption «state transitive»: of=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.

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