Exam question 3 · "Crime is up, I saw it on the news"

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning the comparative safety, over the same distance travelled, of air travel on major airlines and travel by car.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, established facts, same distance, car · What happens: select, be, establish, concern, travel · To what, where: response, comparative safety

This is exam question 3 of lesson 177 «"Crime is up, I saw it on the news"» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 consistent	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 consistent	cop
6	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	acl:relcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 facts	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 facts	det
9	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 facts	amod
10	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 consistent	obl
11	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 facts	acl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 safety	det
13	comparative	comparative	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 safety	amod
14	safety	safety	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 travelled	punct
16	over	over	SCONJ	_	20 travelled	mark
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 distance	det
18	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 distance	amod
19	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 travelled	nsubj
20	travelled	travel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Select	parataxis
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 travel	punct
22	of	of	ADP	_	24 travel	case
23	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 travel	compound
24	travel	travel	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 travelled	obl
25	on	on	ADP	_	27 airlines	case
26	major	major	ADJ	Degree=Pos	27 airlines	amod
27	airlines	airline	NOUN	Number=Plur	24 travel	nmod
28	and	and	CCONJ	_	29 travel	cc
29	travel	travel	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 airlines	conj
30	by	by	ADP	_	31 car	case
31	car	car	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 travel	nmod
32	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	is	present	the response		with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
3	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
4	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the comparative safety		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus safety=Experiencer
5	travel	past	the same distance		of air travel on major airlines and travel by car	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme of travel=Trajectory
6	travel		car			nom travel «act intransitive»: by=agent

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

Both are precisely equal in safety

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	4 equal	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 equal	cop
3	precisely	precisely	ADV	_	4 equal	advmod
4	equal	equal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 safety	case
6	safety	safety	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 equal	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Both			safety		equal, precisely property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Air travel on major airlines is considerably safer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 travel	compound
2	travel	travel	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 safer	nsubj
3	on	on	ADP	_	5 airlines	case
4	major	major	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 airlines	amod
5	airlines	airline	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 travel	nmod
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 safer	cop
7	considerably	considerably	ADV	_	8 safer	advmod
8	safer	safe	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Air travel on major airlines					considerably, safe property	tree rules

Option 3

Travel by car is considerably safer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Travel	travel	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 safer	nsubj
2	by	by	ADP	_	3 car	case
3	car	car	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Travel	nmod
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 safer	cop
5	considerably	considerably	ADV	_	6 safer	advmod
6	safer	safe	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Travel by car					considerably, safe property	tree rules
2	travel		car						nom travel «act intransitive»: by=agent

Option 4

No comparison has ever been made

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 comparison	det
2	comparison	comparison	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 made	nsubj:pass
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 made	aux
4	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	6 made	advmod
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 made	aux:pass
6	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present · perfect · passive		no comparison			ever		vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product

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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