Exam question 1 · The rumour that grows

Identify the principal process by which the report "Mr Hughes has a cold" became "Mr Hughes is in hospital" within three days.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, report, cold, Mr · What happens: identify, have, become, be · To what, where: principal process, hospital · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 167 «The rumour that grows» 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 process	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 process	amod
4	process	process	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 has	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 report	det
8	report	report	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 has	nsubj
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 Mr	punct
10	Mr	Mr	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 report	appos
11	Hughes	Hughes	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Mr	flat
12	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	parataxis
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 cold	det
14	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 became	nsubj
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 became	punct
16	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 has	ccomp
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	22 hospital	punct
18	Mr	Mr	PROPN	Number=Sing	22 hospital	nsubj
19	Hughes	Hughes	PROPN	Number=Sing	18 Mr	flat
20	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	22 hospital	cop
21	in	in	ADP	_	22 hospital	case
22	hospital	hospital	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 became	xcomp
23	"	"	PUNCT	_	22 hospital	punct
24	within	within	ADP	_	26 days	case
25	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	26 days	nummod
26	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 became	obl
27	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal process			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent process=Theme clause=Attribute
2	have in a quote	present	the report				tree rules
3	become	past	a cold			day	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
4	is in a quote	present	Mr		hospital		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

Medical information released by a hospital

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Medical	medical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 information	amod
2	information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	released	release	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 information	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 hospital	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 hospital	det
6	hospital	hospital	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 released	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	release	participle		Medical information not said here				by a hospital	vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Causer

Option 2

Formal notification issued by the school office

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Formal	formal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 notification	amod
2	notification	notification	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	issued	issue	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 notification	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 office	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 office	det
6	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 office	compound
7	office	office	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 issued	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	issue	participle		Formal notification not said here				by the school office	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by office=Location

Option 3

Direct observation by several pupils

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Direct	direct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 observation	amod
2	observation	observation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	by	by	ADP	_	5 pupils	case
4	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 pupils	amod
5	pupils	pupil	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 observation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	observe		several pupils						nom observation «act transitive»: by=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Successive retelling without verification, with enlargement at each stage

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Successive	successive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 retelling	amod
2	retelling	retelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	without	without	ADP	_	4 verification	case
4	verification	verification	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 retelling	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 enlargement	punct
6	with	with	ADP	_	7 enlargement	case
7	enlargement	enlargement	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 retelling	conj
8	at	at	ADP	_	10 stage	case
9	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	10 stage	det
10	stage	stage	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 enlargement	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/world/167-the-rumour-that-grows/e1/