---
title: Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the… — Fire at home · tree and pragmatics
description: Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the principal cause of death in house fires? Exam question 1 of lesson 34 «Fire at home» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wron
---

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# Exam question 1 · Fire at home

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the principal cause of death in house fires?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **What happens:** follow, characteris, cause · **To what, where:** principal cause, house fires, death

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 1 of lesson 34 «Fire at home» of the everyday 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/everyday/34-fire-at-home/#e1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:34-fire-at-home:e1:1
# text = Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the principal cause of death in house fires?
1	Which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	following	follow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	amod	_	_
5	statements	statement	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
6	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	7	advmod	_	_
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	principal	principal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	fires	fire	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **characteris** | present |  | the principal cause of death |  | house fires |  | of the following statements; accurately *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **cause** |  |  | death |  | house fires |  |  | nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient in=place |

<!-- .note -->
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 {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Most such deaths are occasioned by burns from the flames

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:34-fire-at-home:e1:o1:1
# text = Most such deaths are occasioned by burns from the flames
1	Most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
2	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	deaths	death	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	occasioned	occasion	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	burns	burn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	flames	flame	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **occasion** | present · passive | burns | Most such deaths |  | the flames |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Most such deaths are occasioned by the water used to extinguish the fire

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:34-fire-at-home:e1:o2:1
# text = Most such deaths are occasioned by the water used to extinguish the fire
1	Most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
2	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	deaths	death	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	occasioned	occasion	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	extinguish	extinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **occasion** | present · passive | the water | Most such deaths |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | participle |  | the water *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **extinguish** | to-infinitive |  | the fire |  |  |  |  | vn remedy-45.7-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent fire=Patient |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Most such deaths are occasioned by smoke rather than by flames

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:34-fire-at-home:e1:o3:1
# text = Most such deaths are occasioned by smoke rather than by flames
1	Most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
2	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	deaths	death	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	occasioned	occasion	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	rather	rather	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	5	advmod	_	_
9	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	fixed	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	flames	flame	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **occasion** | present · passive | smoke | Most such deaths |  |  |  | by flames | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Most such deaths are occasioned by falling walls

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:34-fire-at-home:e1:o4:1
# text = Most such deaths are occasioned by falling walls
1	Most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
2	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	deaths	death	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	occasioned	occasion	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	amod	_	_
8	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **occasion** | present · passive | falling walls | Most such deaths |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fall** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Fire at home, test 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/34-fire-at-home/t19/)
- next →: [Fire at home, exam 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/34-fire-at-home/e2/)
- ↑ back to [Fire at home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/34-fire-at-home/)