Exam question 2 · How would we know? Asking experts and spotting tricks

Identify the principal reason for which canine animals ought not to be given grapes or raisins.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, not give · To what, where: principal reason, canine animals

This is exam question 2 of lesson 30 «How would we know? Asking experts and spotting tricks» of the myths 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 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 given	obl
7	canine	canine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 animals	amod
8	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 given	nsubj:pass
9	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 given	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	13 given	advmod
11	to	to	PART	_	13 given	mark
12	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	13 given	aux:pass
13	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl
14	grapes	grape	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 given	obj
15	or	or	CCONJ	_	16 raisins	cc
16	raisins	raisin	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 grapes	conj
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	not give	ought · passive	you not said here	canine animals				for the principal reason	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP NP PP.asset»: subject=Recipient grape=Theme for which=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 · ← Mova's choice

They impair the canine sense of smell

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	2 impair	nsubj
2	impair	impair	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sense	det
4	canine	canine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 sense	amod
5	sense	sense	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 impair	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 smell	case
7	smell	smell	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sense	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	impair	present	They	the canine sense of smell					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus sense=Experiencer
2	sense			smell					nom sense «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

They cause the fur to change colour

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	2 cause	nsubj
2	cause	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 fur	det
4	fur	fur	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cause	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 change	mark
6	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 cause	advcl
7	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 change	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	They	the fur					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition fur=Patient
2	change	to-infinitive	They not said here	colour					vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent colour=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

They may cause failure of the kidneys in some dogs

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 cause	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 cause	aux
3	cause	cause	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 cause	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 kidneys	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 kidneys	det
7	kidneys	kidney	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 failure	nmod
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 dogs	case
9	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	10 dogs	det
10	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 cause	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	may	They	failure of the kidneys				in some dogs	vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition failure=Patient
2	fail		the kidneys						nom failure «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4

They are invariably harmless to dogs of every breed

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	4 harmless	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 harmless	cop
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	4 harmless	advmod
4	harmless	harmless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 dogs	case
6	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 harmless	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 breed	case
8	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	9 breed	det
9	breed	breed	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 dogs	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	They					to dogs of every breed; harmless, invariably property	tree rules

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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