Exam question 4 · Arguing politely and never calling names

Whereas a person alters his view upon receipt of new information, determine the characterisation most consistent with this lesson.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: person, you · What happens: alter, determine, view, receipt · To what, where: view, characterisation, new information

This is exam question 4 of lesson 39 «Arguing politely and never calling names» 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	Whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	4 alters	mark
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 person	det
3	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 alters	nsubj
4	alters	alter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 determine	advcl
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 view	nmod:poss
6	view	view	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 alters	obj
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 receipt	case
8	receipt	receipt	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 alters	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 information	case
10	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 information	amod
11	information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 receipt	nmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 determine	punct
13	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 characterisation	det
15	characterisation	characterisation	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 determine	obj
16	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	17 consistent	advmod
17	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 characterisation	amod
18	with	with	ADP	_	20 lesson	case
19	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	20 lesson	det
20	lesson	lesson	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 consistent	obl
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	13 determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	alter	present	a person	person's view	upon receipt of new information	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent view=Patient
2	determine	imperative	you not said here	the characterisation		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent characterisation=Topic
3	view		person			nom view «cognition transitive»: poss=agent
4	receipt			new information		nom receipt «act transitive»: of=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.

The options

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

It is evidence of reasoning rather than of weakness

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 evidence	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 evidence	cop
3	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 reasoning	case
5	reasoning	reasoning	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 evidence	nmod
6	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	9 weakness	cc
7	than	than	ADP	_	6 rather	fixed
8	of	of	ADP	_	6 rather	fixed
9	weakness	weakness	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 evidence	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	evidence rather weakness				of reasoning	tree rules

Option 2

It is permissible for adults only

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 permissible	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 permissible	cop
3	permissible	permissible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 adults	case
5	adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 permissible	obl
6	only	only	ADV	_	5 adults	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					for adults; permissible property	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It is evidence that he did not attend to the information

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 evidence	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 evidence	cop
3	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 attend	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 attend	nsubj
6	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 attend	aux
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 attend	advmod
8	attend	attend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 evidence	acl
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 information	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 information	det
11	information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 attend	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	evidence					tree rules
2	not attend	past · do-support	he	evidence not said here				to the information	vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme evidence=Goal

Option 4

It is evidence of dishonesty in his former view

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 evidence	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 evidence	cop
3	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 dishonesty	case
5	dishonesty	dishonesty	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 evidence	nmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	9 view	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 view	nmod:poss
8	former	former	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 view	amod
9	view	view	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dishonesty	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	evidence				of dishonesty in his former view	tree rules
2	view		his = he						nom view «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

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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