Exam question 1 · Fighting fair: no straw men, no moving goalposts, no eithe…

Identify the device employed where a person, on being presented with each successive piece of evidence that they had requested, demands evidence of a more exacting kind.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, device, they, person · What happens: identify, employ, present, request, demand, exact · To what, where: person, evidence, exacting kind

This is exam question 1 of lesson 189 «Fighting fair: no straw men, no moving goalposts, no either-or» 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	3 device	det
3	device	device	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 employed	nsubj
4	employed	employ	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	ccomp
5	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	23 demands	advmod
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 person	det
7	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 demands	nsubj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 presented	punct
9	on	on	SCONJ	_	11 presented	mark
10	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 presented	aux:pass
11	presented	present	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 person	acl:relcl
12	with	with	ADP	_	15 piece	case
13	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	15 piece	det
14	successive	successive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 piece	amod
15	piece	piece	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 presented	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	17 evidence	case
17	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 piece	nmod
18	that	that	SCONJ	_	21 requested	mark
19	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 requested	nsubj
20	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	21 requested	aux
21	requested	request	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 evidence	acl
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 piece	punct
23	demands	demand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 employed	advcl
24	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 demands	obj
25	of	of	ADP	_	29 kind	case
26	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	29 kind	det
27	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	28 exacting	advmod
28	exacting	exact	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	29 kind	amod
29	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 evidence	nmod
30	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	employ	past	the device			vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	present	gerund · passive		a person not said here	with each successive piece of evidence	vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP.theme»: with piece=Theme
4	request	past · perfect	they	evidence not said here		vn beg-58.2 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent evidence=Recipient
5	demand speech: request	present	a person	evidence of a exacting kind		vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme evidence=Precondition
6	exact	gerund				vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
7	evidence			a exacting kind		nom evidence «cognition 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

A false dilemma

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 dilemma	det
2	false	false	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 dilemma	amod
3	dilemma	dilemma	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

An appeal to tradition

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 appeal	det
2	appeal	appeal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 tradition	case
4	tradition	tradition	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 appeal	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Moving the goalposts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Moving	move	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 goalposts	det
3	goalposts	goalpost	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Moving	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	move	gerund		the goalposts					vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent goalpost=Theme

Option 4

A straw man

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 man	det
2	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 man	compound
3	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/189-fighting-fair-no-straw-men-no-moving-goalposts-no-either-or/e1/