Exam question 3 · Scary things in the world: news, strangers, war and what-ifs

Identify the principal reason for which children frequently suffer anxiety upon overhearing parental conversations concerning finances.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, children · What happens: identify, suffer, overhear · To what, where: principal reason, anxiety, parental conversations

This is exam question 3 of lesson 8 «Scary things in the world: news, strangers, war and what-ifs» 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	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 suffer	obl
7	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 suffer	nsubj
8	frequently	frequently	ADV	_	9 suffer	advmod
9	suffer	suffer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
10	anxiety	anxiety	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 suffer	obj
11	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	12 overhearing	mark
12	overhearing	overhear	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 suffer	advcl
13	parental	parental	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 conversations	amod
14	conversations	conversation	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 overhearing	obj
15	concerning	concerning	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 finances	amod
16	finances	finances	NOUN	Number=Ptan	12 overhearing	obj
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	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	suffer	present	children	anxiety	for the principal reason; frequently property	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anxiety=Stimulus for which=Attribute
3	overhear	gerund	children not said here	parental conversations		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

Children are incapable of any comprehension of financial matters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 incapable	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 incapable	cop
3	incapable	incapable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 comprehension	case
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 comprehension	det
6	comprehension	comprehension	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 incapable	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 matters	case
8	financial	financial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 matters	amod
9	matters	matter	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 comprehension	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Children					of any comprehension of financial matters; incapable property	tree rules
2	comprehend			financial matters					nom comprehension «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Partial information is supplemented by the child's imagining of the worst

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Partial	partial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 information	amod
2	information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 supplemented	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 supplemented	aux:pass
4	supplemented	supplement	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	9 imagining	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 child	det
7	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 imagining	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 child	case
9	imagining	imagining	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 supplemented	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 worst	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 worst	det
12	worst	bad	ADJ	Degree=Sup	9 imagining	appos

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	supplement	present · passive	the child's imagining	Partial information					tree rules

Option 3

Children are customarily responsible for the household finances

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 responsible	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 responsible	cop
3	customarily	customarily	ADV	_	4 responsible	advmod
4	responsible	responsible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	8 finances	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 finances	det
7	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 finances	compound
8	finances	finances	NOUN	Number=Ptan	4 responsible	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Children					for the household finances; customarily, responsible property	tree rules

Option 4

Parental conversations concerning money are invariably accurate predictions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Parental	parental	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 conversations	amod
2	conversations	conversation	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 predictions	nsubj
3	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 conversations	acl
4	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 concerning	obj
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 predictions	cop
6	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	7 accurate	advmod
7	accurate	accurate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 predictions	amod
8	predictions	prediction	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	concern	gerund	Parental conversations not said here	money					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus money=Experiencer
2	is a	present	Parental conversations	accurate predictions					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/reflection/8-scary-things-in-the-world-news-strangers-war-and-what-ifs/e3/