Exam question 4 · Owning up: the broken vase and the lost library book

Ascertain which statement concerning the anecdote of George Washington and the cherry tree is consistent with historical scholarship.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, cherry tree · What happens: ascertain, concern, be · To what, where: statement

This is exam question 4 of lesson 89 «Owning up: the broken vase and the lost library book» 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	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	3 statement	det
3	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	concerning	concern	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 anecdote	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 anecdote	det
6	anecdote	anecdote	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 statement	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 George	case
8	George	George	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 anecdote	nmod
9	Washington	Washington	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 George	flat
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 consistent	cc
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 tree	det
12	cherry	cherry	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 tree	compound
13	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 consistent	nsubj
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 consistent	cop
15	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 statement	conj
16	with	with	ADP	_	18 scholarship	case
17	historical	historical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 scholarship	amod
18	scholarship	scholarship	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 consistent	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	which statement	concern the anecdote of George	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent statement=Topic
2	concern	gerund				vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
3	is	present	the cherry tree		with historical scholarship; consistent property	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

The anecdote is confirmed by archaeological evidence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 anecdote	det
2	anecdote	anecdote	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 confirmed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 confirmed	aux:pass
4	confirmed	confirm	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 evidence	case
6	archaeological	archaeological	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 evidence	amod
7	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 confirmed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confirm	present · passive	archaeological evidence	the anecdote					vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot subject=Topic

Option 2

The anecdote is attested in Washington's own correspondence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 anecdote	det
2	anecdote	anecdote	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 attested	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 attested	aux:pass
4	attested	attest	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	9 correspondence	case
6	Washington	Washington	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 correspondence	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 Washington	case
8	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 correspondence	amod
9	correspondence	correspondence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 attested	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attest	present · passive		the anecdote		Washington's own correspondence			tree rules
2	correspond		Washington						nom correspondence «communication intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The anecdote originated in the biography by Mason Locke Weems and is almost certainly fictitious

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 anecdote	det
2	anecdote	anecdote	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	originated	originate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 anecdote	acl
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 biography	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 biography	det
6	biography	biography	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 originated	obl
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 Mason	case
8	Mason	Mason	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 originated	obl
9	Locke	Locke	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Mason	flat
10	Weems	Weems	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 Locke	flat
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 fictitious	cc
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 fictitious	cop
13	almost	almost	ADV	_	14 certainly	advmod
14	certainly	certainly	ADV	_	15 fictitious	advmod
15	fictitious	fictitious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 anecdote	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	originate	participle		the anecdote not said here		the biography		by Mason	vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is	present						certainly, fictitious property	tree rules

Option 4

The anecdote was first recorded by Washington's father

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 anecdote	det
2	anecdote	anecdote	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 recorded	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 recorded	aux:pass
4	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	5 recorded	advmod
5	recorded	record	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	9 father	case
7	Washington	Washington	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 father	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 Washington	case
9	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 recorded	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	record	past · passive	Washington's father	the anecdote				first property	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=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.

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