Exam question 2 · Colds, coughs and the weather

Identify the principal reason for which antibiotic medicines are not prescribed for the common cold.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, not prescribe · To what, where: principal reason, antibiotic medicines

This is exam question 2 of lesson 4 «Colds, coughs and the weather» 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	11 prescribed	obl
7	antibiotic	antibiotic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 medicines	amod
8	medicines	medicine	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 prescribed	nsubj:pass
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 prescribed	aux:pass
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 prescribed	advmod
11	prescribed	prescribe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	for	for	ADP	_	15 cold	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 cold	det
14	common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 cold	amod
15	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 prescribed	obl
16	.	.	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 prescribe	present · passive		antibiotic medicines				for the principal reason; for the common cold	tree rules

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

Antibiotics act only upon infections of the head

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Antibiotics	antibiotic	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 act	nsubj
2	act	act	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	5 infections	advmod
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 infections	case
5	infections	infection	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 act	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 head	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 head	det
8	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 infections	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	present	Antibiotics					upon infections of the head	vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	infect			the head					nom infection «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

Antibiotics are reserved exclusively for adults

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Antibiotics	antibiotic	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 reserved	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reserved	aux:pass
3	reserved	reserve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	3 reserved	advmod
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 adults	case
6	adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 reserved	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reserve	present · passive		Antibiotics				for adults; exclusively property	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: subject=Theme for adult=Beneficiary

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Antibiotics act upon bacteria, whereas the cold is viral

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Antibiotics	antibiotic	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 act	nsubj
2	act	act	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	4 bacteria	case
4	bacteria	bacterium	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 act	obl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 viral	punct
6	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	10 viral	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 cold	det
8	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 viral	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 viral	cop
10	viral	viral	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 act	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	present	Antibiotics					upon bacteria	vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	the cold					viral property	tree rules

Option 4

Antibiotics are ineffective during the winter months

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Antibiotics	antibiotic	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 ineffective	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 ineffective	cop
3	ineffective	ineffective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	during	during	ADP	_	7 months	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 months	det
6	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 months	compound
7	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 ineffective	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Antibiotics				month	ineffective 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/myths/4-colds-coughs-and-the-weather/e2/