Exam question 2 · Tricks the mind plays: inner voices, superstitions and bei…

Identify the principal reason for which events reported in the news may be perceived as more frequent than they are.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, events · What happens: identify, report, perceive, be · To what, where: news, principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 27 «Tricks the mind plays: inner voices, superstitions and being sure but wrong» of the reflection 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	14 perceived	nsubj:pass
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 reported	obl
7	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 reported	nsubj
8	reported	report	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 news	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 news	det
11	news	news	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 reported	obl
12	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 perceived	aux
13	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	14 perceived	aux:pass
14	perceived	perceive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	ccomp
15	as	as	SCONJ	_	17 frequent	mark
16	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	17 frequent	amod
17	frequent	frequent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 perceived	xcomp
18	than	than	SCONJ	_	20 are	mark
19	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 are	nsubj
20	are	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 frequent	advcl
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here				vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	report	past	events		the news	for the principal reason	vn prosecute-33.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent for which=Theme
3	perceive	may · passive		the principal reason		frequent property	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus
4	does	present	events = event				vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice

All events are reported in proportion to their frequency

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 events	det
2	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 reported	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reported	aux:pass
4	reported	report	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 proportion	case
6	proportion	proportion	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reported	obl
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 frequency	case
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 frequency	nmod:poss
9	frequency	frequency	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reported	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	report	present · passive		all events	events's frequency	proportion			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Topic to frequency=Recipient

Option 2

Reporting an event in the news causes its frequency to increase thereafter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Reporting	report	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 causes	csubj
2	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 event	det
3	event	event	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Reporting	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 news	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 news	det
6	news	news	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Reporting	obl
7	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 frequency	nmod:poss
9	frequency	frequency	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 causes	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 increase	mark
11	increase	increase	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 causes	advcl
12	thereafter	thereafter	ADV	_	11 increase	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	report	gerund		a event	the news		vn prosecute-33.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent event=Patient
2	cause	present	Reporting	news's frequency			vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition frequency=Patient
3	increase	to-infinitive	Reporting not said here			thereafter property	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The prominence of rare and alarming events renders them readily recalled

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 prominence	det
2	prominence	prominence	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 renders	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 events	case
4	rare	rare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 events	amod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 alarming	cc
6	alarming	alarming	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 rare	conj
7	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 prominence	nmod
8	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 renders	obj
10	readily	readily	ADV	_	11 recalled	advmod
11	recalled	recall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 renders	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	the prominence of rare events	events = event					vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme
2	recall	past	the prominence of rare events not said here					readily property	vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Persons possess precise knowledge of statistical frequencies

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	precise	precise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 knowledge	amod
4	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 frequencies	case
6	statistical	statistical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 frequencies	amod
7	frequencies	frequency	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 knowledge	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Persons	precise knowledge of statistical frequencies					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot knowledge=Theme

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/reflection/27-tricks-the-mind-plays-inner-voices-superstitions-and-being-sure-but-wrong/e2/