Exam question 4 · Trick questions that catch quick thinkers

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning a runner who overtakes the competitor in second place.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, established facts, runner · What happens: select, be, establish, concern, overtake · To what, where: response, runner, competitor, second place

This is exam question 4 of lesson 181 «Trick questions that catch quick thinkers» 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	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 runner	det
13	runner	runner	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obj
14	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 overtakes	nsubj
15	overtakes	overtake	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 runner	acl:relcl
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 competitor	det
17	competitor	competitor	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 overtakes	obj
18	in	in	ADP	_	20 place	case
19	second	second	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	20 place	amod
20	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 overtakes	obl
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	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	a runner			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus runner=Experiencer
5	overtake	present	a runner	the competitor	second place		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

The runner thereby occupies first place

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 runner	det
2	runner	runner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 occupies	nsubj
3	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	4 occupies	advmod
4	occupies	occupy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	4 occupies	advmod
6	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 occupies	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occupy	present	the runner	place				first, thereby property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus place=Experiencer

Option 2

The runner thereby occupies third place

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 runner	det
2	runner	runner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 occupies	nsubj
3	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	4 occupies	advmod
4	occupies	occupy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	third	third	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	6 place	amod
6	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 occupies	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occupy	present	the runner	third place				thereby property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus place=Experiencer

Option 3

The runner's position cannot be determined

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 runner	det
2	runner	runner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 position	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 runner	case
4	position	position	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 determined	nsubj:pass
5	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 determined	aux
6	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 determined	advmod
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 determined	aux:pass
8	determined	determine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not determine	can · passive		the runner's position					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The runner thereby occupies second place

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 runner	det
2	runner	runner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 occupies	nsubj
3	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	4 occupies	advmod
4	occupies	occupy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	second	second	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	6 place	amod
6	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 occupies	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occupy	present	the runner	second place				thereby property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus place=Experiencer

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/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/e4/