Exam question 4 · When a grandparent dies

Ascertain the means by which a bereaved family unable to attend a distant funeral may nonetheless take leave of the deceased.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, the, bereaved family · What happens: ascertain, mean, attend, take, decease · To what, where: distant funeral, leave · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 58 «When a grandparent dies» of the religion ethics 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Ascertain	ccomp
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	17 take	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 family	det
7	bereaved	bereaved	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 family	amod
8	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 take	nsubj
9	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 family	amod
10	to	to	PART	_	11 attend	mark
11	attend	attend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 unable	xcomp
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 funeral	det
13	distant	distant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 funeral	amod
14	funeral	funeral	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 attend	obj
15	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	17 take	aux
16	nonetheless	nonetheless	ADV	_	17 take	advmod
17	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 means	ccomp
18	leave	leave	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 take	obj
19	of	of	SCONJ	_	21 deceased	mark
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 deceased	det
21	deceased	decease	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	18 leave	acl
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here			vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	mean	present	the			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	attend	to-infinitive	a bereaved family not said here	a distant funeral		vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme funeral=Goal
4	take	may	a bereaved family	leave	nonetheless property	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leave=Theme
5	decease	participle		leave not said here		vn die-42.4 «NP V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice

Solely by attending the funeral in person, at whatever cost

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Solely	solely	ADV	_	3 attending	advmod
2	by	by	SCONJ	_	3 attending	mark
3	attending	attend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 funeral	det
5	funeral	funeral	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attending	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 person	case
7	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attending	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 whatever	punct
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 whatever	case
10	whatever	whatever	PRON	PronType=Rel	3 attending	obj
11	cost	cost	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 whatever	nsubj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attend	gerund		the funeral				in person; solely property	tree rules

Option 2

Solely by the purchase of flowers to be delivered abroad

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Solely	solely	ADV	_	4 purchase	advmod
2	by	by	ADP	_	4 purchase	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 purchase	det
4	purchase	purchase	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 flowers	case
6	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 purchase	nmod
7	to	to	PART	_	9 delivered	mark
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 delivered	aux:pass
9	delivered	deliver	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 purchase	acl
10	abroad	abroad	ADV	_	9 delivered	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deliver	to-infinitive · passive						abroad property	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»
2	purchase			flowers					nom purchase «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By the lighting of a candle, the writing of a letter or participation by video

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 lighting	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 lighting	det
3	lighting	lighting	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 candle	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 candle	det
6	candle	candle	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lighting	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 writing	punct
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 writing	det
9	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lighting	conj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 letter	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 letter	det
12	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 writing	nmod
13	or	or	CCONJ	_	14 participation	cc
14	participation	participation	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 letter	conj
15	by	by	ADP	_	16 video	case
16	video	video	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 letter	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write			a letter by video or participation					nom writing «act transitive»: of=patient
2	letter		video						nom letter «communication transitive»: by=agent

Option 4

By no means whatsoever, since distance renders any farewell impossible

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	3 means	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 renders	punct
6	since	since	ADP	_	8 renders	case
7	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 renders	compound
8	renders	render	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 means	parataxis
9	any	any	ADV	_	10 farewell	advmod
10	farewell	farewell	ADV	Degree=Cmp	11 impossible	advmod
11	impossible	impossible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 means	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	no					whatsoever property	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/religion-ethics/58-when-a-grandparent-dies/e4/