Exam question 4 · Lucky socks and Grandma's superstitions

Which of the following most accurately characterises a belief that is maintained by supplying a fresh excuse upon each failure?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, maintain, supply · To what, where: belief, fresh excuse

This is exam question 4 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	7 characterises	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 characterises	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 characterises	csubj
5	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	6 accurately	advmod
6	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	7 characterises	advmod
7	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 belief	det
9	belief	belief	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
10	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 maintained	nsubj:pass
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 maintained	aux:pass
12	maintained	maintain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 belief	acl:relcl
13	by	by	SCONJ	_	14 supplying	mark
14	supplying	supply	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 maintained	advcl
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 excuse	det
16	fresh	fresh	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 excuse	amod
17	excuse	excuse	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 supplying	obj
18	upon	upon	ADP	_	20 failure	case
19	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	20 failure	det
20	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 excuse	nmod
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	a belief	accurately property	tree rules
3	maintain	present · passive	a belief		vn declare-29.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme
4	supply	gerund	a fresh excuse	upon each failure	vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent excuse=Recipient

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 confirmed afresh by each failure

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 confirmed	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 confirmed	aux:pass
3	confirmed	confirm	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	afresh	afresh	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 confirmed	xcomp
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 failure	case
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 failure	det
7	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 confirmed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confirm	present · passive	each failure	It				afresh property	vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot subject=Topic

Option 2

It becomes steadily more probable with the passage of time and further failures

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 becomes	nsubj
2	becomes	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	steadily	steadily	ADV	_	5 probable	advmod
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 probable	advmod
5	probable	probable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 becomes	xcomp
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 passage	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 passage	det
8	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 probable	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 time	case
10	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 passage	nmod
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 failures	cc
12	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 failures	amod
13	failures	failure	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 passage	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	present	It					probable property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	pass		time						nom passage «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It cannot be shown to be wrong and is therefore uninformative

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 shown	nsubj:pass
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 shown	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 shown	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 shown	aux:pass
5	shown	show	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	8 wrong	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 wrong	cop
8	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 shown	xcomp
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 uninformative	cc
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 uninformative	cop
11	therefore	therefore	ADV	_	12 uninformative	advmod
12	uninformative	uninformative	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 wrong	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	not show	can · passive	It		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient
2	is	to-infinitive		wrong property	tree rules
3	is	present		therefore, uninformative property	tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

It is proven by the number of excuses offered

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 proven	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 proven	aux:pass
3	proven	prove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 number	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 number	det
6	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 proven	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 excuses	case
8	excuses	excuse	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 number	nmod
9	offered	offer	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 excuses	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prove	present · passive	the number of excuses	It					vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme
2	offer	participle		excuses not said here					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: 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.

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