Test 3 · Taxes and the government's budget

A neighbour moans, "Took 'em 2 years to fix that pothole, proper useless." What might explain it?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: neighbour · What happens: moan, take, fix, explain · To what, where: 'em, pothole

This is test 3 of lesson 36 «Taxes and the government's budget» 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

Sentence 1: A neighbour moans, "Took 'em 2 years to fix that pothole, proper useless."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 neighbour	det
2	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 moans	nsubj
3	moans	moan	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 Took	punct
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 Took	punct
6	Took	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 moans	conj
7	'em	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 Took	obj
8	2	2	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	9 years	nummod
9	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 Took	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 fix	mark
11	fix	fix	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 Took	advcl
12	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	13 pothole	det
13	pothole	pothole	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 fix	obj
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 useless	punct
15	proper	proper	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 useless	amod
16	useless	useless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 pothole	conj
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 moans	punct
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 moans	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	moan	present	a neighbour			vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	take in a quote	participle	a neighbour not said here	'em = they	year	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme
3	fix in a quote	to-infinitive	a neighbour not said here	that pothole		vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent pothole=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.

Sentence 2: What might explain it?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 explain	obj
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 explain	aux
3	explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 explain	obj
5	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	might		pothole					tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Councils are not allowed to fix roads at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Councils	council	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 allowed	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 allowed	aux:pass
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 allowed	advmod
4	allowed	allow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 fix	mark
6	fix	fix	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 allowed	xcomp
7	roads	road	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 fix	obj
8	at	at	ADP	_	9 all	case
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 fix	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not allow	present · passive		Councils					vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality
2	fix not said to happen	to-infinitive	Councils not said here	roads		all			vn price-54.4 «NP V NP PP.value»: agent=Agent road=Theme at all=Value

Option 2

The pothole was protected by a special law for two whole years, so it stayed

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pothole	det
2	pothole	pothole	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 protected	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 protected	aux:pass
4	protected	protect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	8 law	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 law	det
7	special	special	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 law	amod
8	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 protected	obl
9	for	for	ADP	_	12 years	case
10	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 years	nummod
11	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 years	amod
12	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 protected	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 stayed	punct
14	so	so	ADV	_	16 stayed	advmod
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 stayed	nsubj
16	stayed	stay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 protected	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	protect	past · passive	a special law	the pothole			year		vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Beneficiary
2	stay	past	pothole						vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Councils have limited money and have to choose which roads come first

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Councils	council	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 have	nsubj
2	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	limited	limit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 money	amod
4	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 have	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 have	cc
6	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 have	conj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 choose	mark
8	choose	choose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 have	xcomp
9	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	10 roads	det
10	roads	road	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 come	nsubj
11	come	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 choose	ccomp
12	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	11 come	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	have	present	Councils	limited money		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Patient
2	limit	participle				vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer
3	have	present	Councils not said here			tree rules
4	choose	to-infinitive	Councils not said here			tree rules
5	come	present	which roads		first property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Potholes are fixed only by volunteers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Potholes	pothole	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 fixed	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 fixed	aux:pass
3	fixed	fix	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	6 volunteers	advmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 volunteers	case
6	volunteers	volunteer	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 fixed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fix	present · passive		Potholes					vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary volunteer=Product

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/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/t3/