Exam question 1 · Honest with yourself: excuses, pride and the truth inside

Which of the following most accurately characterises the principal disadvantage of an excuse?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, be

This is exam question 1 of lesson 98 «Honest with yourself: excuses, pride and the truth inside» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 disadvantage	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	10 disadvantage	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 disadvantage	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 disadvantage	case
5	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	6 accurately	advmod
6	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	10 disadvantage	advmod
7	characterises	characteris	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 disadvantage	cop
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 disadvantage	det
9	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 disadvantage	amod
10	disadvantage	disadvantage	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 excuse	case
12	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 excuse	det
13	excuse	excuse	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 disadvantage	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	10 disadvantage	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is	present						of the principal disadvantage; of a excuse; accurately 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 right answer

It preserves the appearance of the speaker whilst preventing the remedy of the actual problem

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 preserves	nsubj
2	preserves	preserve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 appearance	det
4	appearance	appearance	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 preserves	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 speaker	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 speaker	det
7	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 appearance	nmod
8	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	_	9 preventing	mark
9	preventing	prevent	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 preserves	advcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 remedy	det
11	remedy	remedy	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 preventing	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 problem	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 problem	det
14	actual	actual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 problem	amod
15	problem	problem	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 remedy	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	preserve	present	It	the appearance of the speaker	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent appearance=Beneficiary
2	prevent	gerund		the remedy of the actual problem	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer remedy=Theme
3	remedy			the actual problem	nom remedy «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

It is always more difficult to formulate than the truth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 difficult	expl
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 difficult	cop
3	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	5 difficult	advmod
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 difficult	advmod
5	difficult	difficult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 formulate	mark
7	formulate	formulate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 difficult	csubj
8	than	than	ADP	_	10 truth	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 truth	det
10	truth	truth	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 formulate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						always, difficult property	tree rules
2	formulate	to-infinitive						than the truth	vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

It possesses no disadvantage whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 possesses	nsubj
2	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 disadvantage	det
4	disadvantage	disadvantage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possesses	obj
5	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 possesses	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	It	no disadvantage				whatsoever property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot disadvantage=Theme

Option 4

It invariably results in a more severe penalty than the truth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 results	nsubj
2	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	3 results	advmod
3	results	result	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	8 penalty	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 penalty	det
6	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	7 severe	advmod
7	severe	severe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 penalty	amod
8	penalty	penalty	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 results	nmod
9	than	than	ADP	_	11 truth	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 truth	det
11	truth	truth	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 results	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/e1/