Exam question 2 · Leap years and 29 February birthdays

Identify the principal reason for which the year 1900 was not designated a leap year.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, not designate · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 112 «Leap years and 29 February birthdays» of the world 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	12 designated	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 year	det
8	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 designated	obl:unmarked
9	1900	1900	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	8 year	flat
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 designated	aux:pass
11	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 designated	advmod
12	designated	designate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 year	det
14	leap	leap	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 year	compound
15	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 designated	obl:unmarked
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	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	not designate	past · passive					year	for the principal reason	vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»

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

It is not exactly divisible by 4

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 divisible	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 divisible	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 divisible	advmod
4	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	5 divisible	advmod
5	divisible	divisible	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 4	case
7	4	4	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	5 divisible	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not divisible	present · passive		It				by 4; exactly property	tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Leap years were not instituted until after 1900

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Leap	leap	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 years	compound
2	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 instituted	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 instituted	aux:pass
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 instituted	advmod
5	instituted	institute	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	until	until	ADP	_	8 1900	case
7	after	after	ADP	_	8 1900	case
8	1900	1900	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	5 instituted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not institute	past · passive		Leap years			until 1900		vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3

It was omitted owing to an administrative error

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 omitted	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 omitted	aux:pass
3	omitted	omit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	owing	owe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 omitted	advcl
5	to	to	ADP	_	8 error	case
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 error	det
7	administrative	administrative	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 error	amod
8	error	error	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 owing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	omit	past · passive		It					vn exclude-107.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	owe	gerund						to a administrative error goal	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to error=Goal

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It concludes in 00 and is not exactly divisible by 400

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 concludes	nsubj
2	concludes	conclude	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 00	case
4	00	00	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	2 concludes	obl
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 divisible	cc
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 divisible	cop
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 divisible	advmod
8	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	9 divisible	advmod
9	divisible	divisible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 concludes	conj
10	by	by	ADP	_	11 400	case
11	400	400	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	2 concludes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conclude	present	It			00		by 400	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	not is	present						divisible, exactly property	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/world/112-leap-years-and-29-february-birthdays/e2/