Test 10 · ★★ · How would we know? Asking experts and spotting tricks

What would happen if no one inspected an old bridge for fifty years?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: one · What happens: happen, inspect · To what, where: one, old bridge

This is test 10 · ★★ of lesson 30 «How would we know? Asking experts and spotting tricks» of the myths 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	_	6 one	mark
5	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 one	det
6	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
7	inspected	inspect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 one	acl
8	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 bridge	det
9	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 bridge	amod
10	bridge	bridge	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 inspected	obj
11	for	for	ADP	_	13 years	case
12	fifty	fifty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 years	nummod
13	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 inspected	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would		no one					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	inspect	participle	no one not said here	a old bridge			year		vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bridge=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

It would turn into a new bridge

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 turn	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 turn	aux
3	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	7 bridge	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bridge	det
6	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 bridge	amod
7	bridge	bridge	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	It			a new bridge			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into bridge=Trajectory

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Weak spots could grow without anyone noticing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 spots	amod
2	spots	spot	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 grow	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 grow	aux
4	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	without	without	ADP	_	6 anyone	case
6	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	4 grow	obl
7	noticing	notice	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 anyone	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	could	Weak spots					without anyone	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	notice	gerund							vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3

It would definitely be stronger than ever before

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 stronger	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 stronger	aux
3	definitely	definitely	ADV	_	5 stronger	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 stronger	cop
5	stronger	strong	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
6	than	than	SCONJ	_	8 before	mark
7	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	8 before	advmod
8	before	before	ADV	_	5 stronger	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	It					definitely, strong property	tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Nothing, because bridges can't weaken

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 weaken	punct
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	7 weaken	mark
4	bridges	bridge	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 weaken	nsubj
5	ca	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 weaken	aux
6	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 weaken	advmod
7	weaken	weaken	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Nothing	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not weaken	can	bridges						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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