Exam question 3 · Correlation is not cause: ice cream and sunburn

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the inference that hospitals cause illness because their occupants are frequently ill?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: inference, occupants · What happens: follow, characteris, cause, be · To what, where: inference, illness

This is exam question 3 of lesson 180 «Correlation is not cause: ice cream and sunburn» 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	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 inference	det
10	inference	inference	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 cause	nsubj
12	hospitals	hospital	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 cause	nsubj
13	cause	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 inference	acl:relcl
14	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 cause	obj
15	because	because	SCONJ	_	20 ill	mark
16	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 occupants	nmod:poss
17	occupants	occupant	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 ill	nsubj
18	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 ill	cop
19	frequently	frequently	ADV	_	20 ill	advmod
20	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 cause	advcl
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 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		the inference	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	cause	present	the inference	illness		vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition illness=Patient
4	is	present	hospitals's occupants		frequently, ill 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

It is consistent with the established facts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 consistent	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 consistent	cop
3	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	7 facts	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 facts	det
6	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 facts	amod
7	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 consistent	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
2	establish	participle							vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It inverts cause and effect, since ill persons attend hospitals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 inverts	nsubj
2	inverts	invert	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 inverts	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 effect	cc
5	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 cause	conj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 attend	punct
7	since	since	SCONJ	_	10 attend	mark
8	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 persons	amod
9	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 attend	nsubj
10	attend	attend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 inverts	conj
11	hospitals	hospital	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 attend	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	invert	present	It	cause and effect					vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent cause=Patient
2	attend	present	ill persons	hospitals					vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme hospital=Goal

Option 3

It is an instance of the fence-post error

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 instance	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 instance	cop
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 instance	det
4	instance	instance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	10 error	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 error	det
7	fence	fence	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 post	compound
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 fence	punct
9	post	post	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 error	compound
10	error	error	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 instance	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a instance				of the post error	tree rules

Option 4

It is a sound inference from the observation of hospital patients

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 inference	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 inference	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 inference	det
4	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 inference	compound
5	inference	inference	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 observation	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 observation	det
8	observation	observation	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 inference	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 patients	case
10	hospital	hospital	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 patients	compound
11	patients	patient	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 observation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a sound inference		the observation of hospital patients			tree rules
2	observe			hospital patients					nom observation «act transitive»: of=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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