Exam question 1 · Lucky socks and Grandma's superstitions

Identify the principal error in the inference that a black cat crossing the road caused a jar to be dropped later the same day.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, black cat · What happens: identify, cross, cause, drop · To what, where: principal error, inference, road, jar

This is exam question 1 of lesson 161 «Lucky socks and Grandma's superstitions» 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 error	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 error	amod
4	error	error	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 inference	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 inference	det
7	inference	inference	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	15 caused	mark
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 cat	det
10	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 cat	amod
11	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 caused	nsubj
12	crossing	cross	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 cat	acl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 road	det
14	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 crossing	obj
15	caused	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	advcl
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 jar	det
17	jar	jar	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 caused	obj
18	to	to	PART	_	20 dropped	mark
19	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	20 dropped	aux:pass
20	dropped	drop	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 caused	parataxis
21	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	24 day	advmod
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 day	det
23	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 day	amod
24	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 dropped	obl:unmarked
25	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal error	the inference		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent error=Theme
2	cross	gerund	a black cat not said here	the road			vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent road=Patient
3	cause	past	a black cat	a jar			vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition jar=Patient
4	drop	to-infinitive · passive				day	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»

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 supposition that glass jars are fragile

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 supposition	det
2	supposition	supposition	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 fragile	nsubj
3	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 jars	nsubj
4	glass	glass	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 jars	compound
5	jars	jar	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 supposition	conj
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 fragile	cop
7	fragile	fragile	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	jar		that						tree rules
2	is	present	the supposition and glass jars					fragile property	tree rules

Option 2

The failure to ascertain the precise colour of the cat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 failure	det
2	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 ascertain	mark
4	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 failure	acl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 colour	det
6	precise	precise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 colour	amod
7	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ascertain	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 cat	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 cat	det
10	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 colour	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	to-infinitive		the precise colour of the cat					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent colour=Topic

Option 3

The omission of the day of the week from the account

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 omission	det
2	omission	omission	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 day	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 day	det
5	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 omission	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 week	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 week	det
8	week	week	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 day	nmod
9	from	from	ADP	_	11 account	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 account	det
11	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 omission	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	omit			the day of the week		the account			nom omission «act transitive»: of=patient from=place

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The assumption that an earlier event necessarily caused a later one

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 assumption	det
2	assumption	assumption	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 caused	nsubj
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 event	mark
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 event	det
5	earlier	early	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 event	amod
6	event	event	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 assumption	acl
7	necessarily	necessarily	ADV	_	8 caused	advmod
8	caused	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 one	det
10	later	late	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	11 one	amod
11	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 caused	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	past	the assumption	a later one				necessarily property	vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition one=Patient

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/161-lucky-socks-and-grandmas-superstitions/e1/