Exam question 2 · Adverts and "8 out of 10 cats"

Identify the principal deficiency of a shampoo trial in which the product was compared with no washing whatsoever.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, compare · To what, where: principal deficiency, product, shampoo trial

This is exam question 2 of lesson 176 «Adverts and "8 out of 10 cats"» 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 deficiency	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 deficiency	amod
4	deficiency	deficiency	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 trial	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 trial	det
7	shampoo	shampoo	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 trial	compound
8	trial	trial	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 deficiency	nmod
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 which	case
10	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 compared	obl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 product	det
12	product	product	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 compared	nsubj:pass
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 compared	aux:pass
14	compared	compare	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 trial	acl:relcl
15	with	with	ADP	_	17 washing	case
16	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	17 washing	det
17	washing	washing	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 compared	obl
18	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	14 compared	advmod
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal deficiency of a shampoo trial					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent deficiency=Theme
2	compare	past · passive		the product		a shampoo trial		with no washing; whatsoever property	vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient with washing=Co-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

The shampoo was not applied to the participants' hair

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shampoo	det
2	shampoo	shampoo	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 applied	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 applied	aux:pass
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 applied	advmod
5	applied	apply	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	10 hair	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 participants	det
8	participants	participant	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 hair	nmod:poss
9	'	's	PART	_	8 participants	case
10	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 applied	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not apply	past · passive		the shampoo				to the participants's hair	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

Shininess cannot be observed by the human eye

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shininess	shininess	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 observed	nsubj:pass
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 observed	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 observed	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 observed	aux:pass
5	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	9 eye	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 eye	det
8	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 eye	amod
9	eye	eye	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 observed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not observe	can · passive	the human eye	Shininess					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent subject=Topic

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The comparison was made against nothing rather than against other products

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 comparison	det
2	comparison	comparison	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 made	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 made	aux:pass
4	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	against	against	ADP	_	6 nothing	case
6	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 made	obl
7	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	11 products	cc
8	than	than	ADP	_	7 rather	fixed
9	against	against	ADP	_	11 products	case
10	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 products	amod
11	products	product	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 nothing	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	past · passive		the comparison				against nothing	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product

Option 4

The number of participants was excessively large

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 number	det
2	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 large	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 participants	case
4	participants	participant	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 number	nmod
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 large	cop
6	excessively	excessively	ADV	_	7 large	advmod
7	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the number of participants					excessively, large property	tree rules

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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