Exam question 1 · "It worked once": one example is not all

Identify the principal error in concluding, from a single neighbour who smoked and attained the age of ninety-five, that smoking is not harmful.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, single neighbour, smoking · What happens: identify, smoke, attain, not be · To what, where: principal error, concluding, age

This is exam question 1 of lesson 164 «"It worked once": one example is not all» 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	_	6 concluding	case
6	concluding	concluding	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 neighbour	punct
8	from	from	ADP	_	11 neighbour	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 neighbour	det
10	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 neighbour	amod
11	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
12	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 smoked	nsubj
13	smoked	smoke	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 neighbour	acl:relcl
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 attained	cc
15	attained	attain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 smoked	conj
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 age	det
17	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 attained	obj
18	of	of	ADP	_	21 five	case
19	ninety	ninety	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	21 five	compound
20	-	-	PUNCT	_	19 ninety	punct
21	five	five	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	17 age	nmod
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 harmful	punct
23	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	24 smoking	det
24	smoking	smoking	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 harmful	nsubj
25	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	27 harmful	cop
26	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	27 harmful	advmod
27	harmful	harmful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 neighbour	conj
28	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal error	concluding	from a single neighbour	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent error=Theme
2	smoke	past	a single neighbour				vn eat-39.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	attain	past	a single neighbour not said here	the age of ninety five			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent age=Theme
4	not is	present	that smoking			harmful 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 neighbour must have consumed honey regularly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 neighbour	det
2	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consumed	nsubj
3	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 consumed	aux
4	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 consumed	aux
5	consumed	consume	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	honey	honey	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consumed	obj
7	regularly	regularly	ADV	_	5 consumed	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	must · perfect	the neighbour	honey				regularly property	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent honey=Asset

Option 2

The neighbour's age was insufficiently advanced

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 neighbour	det
2	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 age	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 neighbour	case
4	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 advanced	nsubj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 advanced	cop
6	insufficiently	insufficiently	ADV	_	7 advanced	advmod
7	advanced	advanced	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the neighbour's age					advanced, insufficiently property	tree rules

Option 3

Smoking was less common in former times

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Smoking	smoking	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 common	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 common	cop
3	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 common	advmod
4	common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 times	case
6	former	former	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 times	amod
7	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 common	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Smoking				time	common, less property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

A single fortunate case is set against evidence drawn from very large populations

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 case	det
2	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 case	amod
3	fortunate	fortunate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 case	amod
4	case	case	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 set	nsubj:pass
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 set	aux:pass
6	set	set	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	against	against	ADP	_	8 evidence	case
8	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 set	obl
9	drawn	draw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 evidence	acl
10	from	from	ADP	_	13 populations	case
11	very	very	ADV	_	12 large	advmod
12	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 populations	amod
13	populations	population	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 drawn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	set	present · passive		a single fortunate case		evidence			vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme against evidence=Destination
2	draw	participle		evidence not said here				from large populations	vn split-23.2 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient from population=Co-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.

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