Exam question 3 · People and society — communities, work, money and rules

Ascertain the purpose for which taxes are levied upon the citizens of a country.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, levy · To what, where: purpose, taxes

This is exam question 3 of lesson 58 «People and society — communities, work, money and rules» 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	3 purpose	det
3	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 levied	obl
6	taxes	tax	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 levied	nsubj
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 levied	aux:pass
8	levied	levy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 purpose	acl:relcl
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 citizens	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 citizens	det
11	citizens	citizen	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 levied	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 country	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 country	det
14	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 citizens	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the purpose					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent purpose=Topic
2	levy	present · passive		taxes				for the purpose; upon the citizens of a country	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

To punish those who have committed crimes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 punish	mark
2	punish	punish	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	those	that	PRON	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	2 punish	obj
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 have	nsubj
5	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 those	acl:relcl
6	committed	committed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 crimes	amod
7	crimes	crime	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	punish	to-infinitive		those					vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Patient
2	have	present		committed crimes					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crime=Patient

Option 2

To purchase personal possessions for each taxpayer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 purchase	mark
2	purchase	purchase	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	personal	personal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 possessions	amod
4	possessions	possession	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 purchase	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 taxpayer	case
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 taxpayer	det
7	taxpayer	taxpayer	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 purchase	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	purchase	to-infinitive		personal possessions				for each taxpayer	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent possession=Theme for taxpayer=Asset

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

To defray the cost of shared provisions such as roads, schools and hospitals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 defray	mark
2	defray	defray	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cost	det
4	cost	cost	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 defray	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 provisions	case
6	shared	share	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 provisions	amod
7	provisions	provision	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 cost	nmod
8	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	10 roads	case
9	as	as	ADP	_	8 such	fixed
10	roads	road	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 provisions	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 schools	punct
12	schools	school	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 roads	conj
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 hospitals	cc
14	hospitals	hospital	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 roads	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	defray	to-infinitive	the cost of shared provisions such roads and schools and hospitals	tree rules
2	share	participle		tree rules
3	cost		shared provisions such roads and schools and hospitals	nom cost «possession transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

To enrich the private persons who collect them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 enrich	mark
2	enrich	enrich	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 persons	det
4	private	private	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 persons	amod
5	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 enrich	obj
6	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 collect	nsubj
7	collect	collect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 persons	acl:relcl
8	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 collect	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enrich	to-infinitive			the private persons				vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme person=Destination
2	collect	present	the private persons	persons = person					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

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/58-people-and-society/e3/