Exam question 3 · The news: who makes it and how

Identify the course of action most consistent with sound reasoning for an individual wishing to ascertain the facts of a contested event.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, ascertain, contest · To what, where: course, facts

This is exam question 3 of lesson 10 «The news: who makes it and how» of the politics 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	3 course	det
3	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 action	case
5	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 course	nmod
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 consistent	advmod
7	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 action	amod
8	with	with	ADP	_	10 reasoning	case
9	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 reasoning	compound
10	reasoning	reasoning	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 consistent	obl
11	for	for	ADP	_	14 wishing	case
12	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 wishing	det
13	individual	individual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 wishing	amod
14	wishing	wishing	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
15	to	to	PART	_	16 ascertain	mark
16	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Identify	advcl
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 facts	det
18	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 ascertain	obj
19	of	of	ADP	_	22 event	case
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 event	det
21	contested	contest	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	22 event	amod
22	event	event	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 facts	nmod
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the course of action	for a individual wishing	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent course=Theme
2	ascertain	to-infinitive	you not said here	the facts of a contested event		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fact=Topic
3	contest	participle				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 · ← Mova's choice

Exclusive reliance upon the headline of a single article

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exclusive	exclusive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 reliance	amod
2	reliance	reliance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 headline	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 headline	det
5	headline	headline	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reliance	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	9 article	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 article	det
8	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 article	amod
9	article	article	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 headline	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	headline			a single article					nom headline «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

Acceptance of the first account encountered

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Acceptance	acceptance	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 encountered	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 account	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 account	det
4	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	5 account	amod
5	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Acceptance	nmod
6	encountered	encounter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	encounter	past	Acceptance of the first account						vn encounter-30.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer
2	accept			the first account					nom acceptance «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Comparison of the accounts given by several different sources

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Comparison	comparison	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 accounts	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 accounts	det
4	accounts	account	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Comparison	nmod
5	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 accounts	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	9 sources	case
7	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 sources	amod
8	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 sources	amod
9	sources	source	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 given	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	participle		the accounts not said here				by several different sources	vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	compare			the accounts					nom comparison «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Exclusive reliance upon a single preferred broadcaster

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exclusive	exclusive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 reliance	amod
2	reliance	reliance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 broadcaster	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 broadcaster	det
5	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 broadcaster	amod
6	preferred	preferred	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 broadcaster	amod
7	broadcaster	broadcaster	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reliance	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/politics/10-the-news-who-makes-it-and-how/e3/