Exam question 4 · Fighting fair: no straw men, no moving goalposts, no eithe…

Ascertain the principal deficiency of the assertion "Either you feed the hamster or he starves" where a rota of duties exists.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, hamster, rota · What happens: ascertain, feed, starve, exist · To what, where: principal deficiency, assertion, hamster

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	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 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 assertion	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 assertion	det
7	assertion	assertion	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 deficiency	nmod
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 feed	punct
9	Either	either	CCONJ	_	11 feed	cc:preconj
10	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	11 feed	nsubj
11	feed	feed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 assertion	acl:relcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 hamster	det
13	hamster	hamster	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 feed	obj
14	or	or	CCONJ	_	16 starves	cc
15	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 starves	nsubj
16	starves	starve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 feed	conj
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 starves	punct
18	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	23 exists	advmod
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	20 rota	det
20	rota	rota	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 exists	nsubj
21	of	of	ADP	_	22 duties	case
22	duties	duty	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 rota	nmod
23	exists	exist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 starves	advcl
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal deficiency of the assertion		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deficiency=Topic
2	feed in a quote	present	you	the assertion not said here	the hamster	vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hamster=Recipient
3	starve in a quote	present	hamster			tree rules
4	exist	present	a rota of duties			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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 misstates the dietary needs of hamsters

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 misstates	nsubj
2	misstates	misstate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 needs	det
4	dietary	dietary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 needs	amod
5	needs	need	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 misstates	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 hamsters	case
7	hamsters	hamster	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 needs	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	misstate	present	It	the dietary needs of hamsters					tree rules
2	need			hamsters					nom need «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It omits further options, such as consulting the rota

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 omits	nsubj
2	omits	omit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 options	amod
4	options	option	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 omits	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 consulting	punct
6	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=SCONJ	8 consulting	mark
7	as	as	ADP	_	6 such	fixed
8	consulting	consult	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 options	acl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 rota	det
10	rota	rota	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 consulting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	omit	present	It	further options					vn exclude-107.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent option=Theme
2	consult	gerund	further options not said here	the rota					vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rota=Theme

Option 3

It correctly identifies the only two options available

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 identifies	nsubj
2	correctly	correctly	ADV	_	3 identifies	advmod
3	identifies	identify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 options	det
5	only	only	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 options	amod
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 options	nummod
7	options	option	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 identifies	obj
8	available	available	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 identifies	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	present	It	the only two options				available, correctly property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent option=Theme

Option 4

It attacks the character of the other party

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 attacks	nsubj
2	attacks	attack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 character	det
4	character	character	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 attacks	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 party	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 party	det
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 party	amod
8	party	party	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 character	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attack	present	It	the character of the other party					vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent character=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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