Exam question 4 · The rumour that grows

Which of the following most accurately characterises an accusation of cheating which no person witnessed?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: cheating · What happens: follow, characteris, person, witness, accuse · To what, where: accusation, person, cheating

This is exam question 4 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	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	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 accusation	det
9	accusation	accusation	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 cheating	case
11	cheating	cheating	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 accusation	nmod
12	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 person	nsubj
13	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	14 person	det
14	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 cheating	conj
15	witnessed	witness	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 person	acl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		a accusation of cheating and no person	accurately property	tree rules
3	person		cheating and no person			tree rules
4	witness	participle		no person not said here		vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent
5	accuse			cheating and no person		nom accusation «communication transitive»: of=patient

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

A finding confirmed by the teacher

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 finding	det
2	finding	finding	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	confirmed	confirm	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 finding	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 teacher	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 teacher	det
6	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 confirmed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confirm	participle		a finding not said here				by the teacher	vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot

Option 2

A fact established by common knowledge

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 fact	det
2	fact	fact	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 fact	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 knowledge	case
5	common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 knowledge	amod
6	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 established	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	establish	participle		a fact not said here				by common knowledge	vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot

Option 3

A conclusion proven by repetition, since many pupils have repeated it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 conclusion	det
2	conclusion	conclusion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	proven	prove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 conclusion	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 repetition	case
5	repetition	repetition	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 proven	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 repeated	punct
7	since	since	SCONJ	_	11 repeated	mark
8	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 pupils	amod
9	pupils	pupil	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 repeated	nsubj:pass
10	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 repeated	aux
11	repeated	repeat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 proven	conj
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 repeated	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prove	participle		a conclusion not said here				by repetition	vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent
2	repeat	present · perfect · passive		many pupils					tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

An unsupported claim which ought to be dropped

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 claim	det
2	unsupported	unsupported	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 claim	amod
3	claim	claim	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 ought	nsubj
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 ought	nsubj
5	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	8 dropped	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 dropped	aux:pass
8	dropped	drop	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 ought	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drop	to-infinitive · passive							vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»

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/e4/