Test 8 · Taxes and local councils: bins, roads and schools

At Sunday lunch Uncle Rob goes, "Taxes are way too high, the government wastes it!" and Auntie Jen snaps, "Then who paid for your knee?" Which summary is fair to both?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Uncle Rob, Taxes, government, Auntie, summary · What happens: go, be, waste, snap, pay · To what, where: Sunday lunch, way · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 8 of lesson 8 «Taxes and local councils: bins, roads and schools» of the politics 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

Sentence 1: At Sunday lunch Uncle Rob goes, "Taxes are way too high, the government wastes it!" and Auntie Jen snaps, "Then who paid for your knee?"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	At	at	ADP	_	3 lunch	case
2	Sunday	Sunday	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 lunch	compound
3	lunch	lunch	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 goes	obl
4	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 Rob	compound
5	Rob	Rob	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 goes	nsubj
6	goes	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 way	punct
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 way	punct
9	Taxes	tax	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 way	nsubj
10	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 way	cop
11	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 goes	obl
12	too	too	ADV	_	13 high	advmod
13	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 way	amod
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 wastes	punct
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 government	det
16	government	government	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 wastes	nsubj
17	wastes	waste	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 goes	parataxis
18	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 wastes	obj
19	!	!	PUNCT	_	17 wastes	punct
20	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 wastes	punct
21	and	and	CCONJ	_	24 snaps	cc
22	Auntie	Auntie	PROPN	Number=Sing	24 snaps	nsubj
23	Jen	Jen	PROPN	Number=Sing	22 Auntie	flat
24	snaps	snap	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 goes	conj
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 snaps	punct
26	"	"	PUNCT	_	29 paid	punct
27	Then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	29 paid	advmod
28	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	29 paid	nsubj
29	paid	pay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	24 snaps	conj
30	for	for	ADP	_	32 knee	case
31	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	32 knee	nmod:poss
32	knee	knee	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 paid	obl
33	?	?	PUNCT	_	24 snaps	punct
34	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 goes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	present	Uncle Rob		Sunday lunch			vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	is a in a quote	present	Taxes	way				tree rules
3	waste in a quote	present	the government	way				vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient
4	snap	present	Auntie					vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location
5	pay in a quote	past				then	for your knee	vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent for knee=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.

Sentence 2: Which summary is fair to both?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 summary	det
2	summary	summary	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fair	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 fair	cop
4	fair	fair	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 both	case
6	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	4 fair	obl
7	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 fair	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	which summary					to both; fair property	tree rules

The options

Option 1

Taxes have nothing to do with hospitals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Taxes	tax	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 have	nsubj
2	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 have	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 do	mark
5	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 nothing	acl
6	with	with	ADP	_	7 hospitals	case
7	hospitals	hospital	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 do	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Taxes	nothing					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient
2	do	to-infinitive	Taxes not said here	nothing not said here				with hospitals	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Both want a good country; they disagree about how much tax and what it pays for

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 want	nsubj
2	want	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 country	det
4	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 country	amod
5	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 want	obj
6	;	;	PUNCT	_	8 disagree	punct
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 disagree	nsubj
8	disagree	disagree	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 want	parataxis
9	about	about	ADP	_	12 tax	case
10	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	11 much	advmod
11	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 tax	amod
12	tax	tax	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 disagree	obl
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 pays	cc
14	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	16 pays	obj
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 pays	nsubj
16	pays	pay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 disagree	conj
17	for	for	ADP	_	16 pays	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	want	present	Both	a good country		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot country=Theme
2	disagree	present	they		about much tax	vn correspond-36.1 «NP V PP.theme S»: agent=Agent about tax=Topic
3	pay	present	country			vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Asset

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Auntie Jen is right and taxes should be as high as possible, whatever they pay for

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Auntie	Auntie	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 right	nsubj
2	Jen	Jen	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Auntie	flat
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 right	cop
4	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 high	cc
6	taxes	tax	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 high	nsubj
7	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 high	aux
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 high	cop
9	as	as	ADV	_	10 high	advmod
10	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 right	conj
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 possible	mark
12	possible	possible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 high	advcl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 whatever	punct
14	whatever	whatever	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 right	conj
15	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 pay	nsubj
16	pay	pay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 whatever	acl:relcl
17	for	for	ADP	_	16 pay	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	Auntie	right property	tree rules
2	is	should	taxes	high property	tree rules
3	pay	present	taxes = tax		vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Uncle Rob is right and hospitals should close

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 Rob	compound
2	Rob	Rob	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 right	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 right	cop
4	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 close	cc
6	hospitals	hospital	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 close	nsubj
7	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 close	aux
8	close	close	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 right	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Uncle Rob					right property	tree rules
2	close	should	hospitals						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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