Exam question 2 · Alice in Wonderland, chapter V, part 2: The mushroom, the…

Ascertain the reason for which the Pigeon identified the protagonist as a serpent.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Pigeon · What happens: ascertain, identify · To what, where: reason, protagonist

This is exam question 2 of lesson 10 «Alice in Wonderland, chapter V, part 2: The mushroom, the long neck and the Pigeon» of the books 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 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 identified	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Pigeon	det
7	Pigeon	Pigeon	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 identified	nsubj
8	identified	identify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	parataxis
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 protagonist	det
10	protagonist	protagonist	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 identified	obj
11	as	as	ADP	_	13 serpent	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 serpent	det
13	serpent	serpent	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 identified	obl
14	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	identify	past	the Pigeon	the protagonist				for the reason; as a serpent	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent protagonist=Theme as serpent=Attribute

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 · ✓ the right answer

The excessive length of her neck and her presence among the treetops

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 length	det
2	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 length	amod
3	length	length	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 neck	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 neck	nmod:poss
6	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 length	nmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 presence	cc
8	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 presence	nmod:poss
9	presence	presence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 length	conj
10	among	among	ADP	_	12 treetops	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 treetops	det
12	treetops	treetop	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 length	nmod

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

Option 2

Her neck was excessively long, and she was standing among the treetops where only birds usually live

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 neck	nmod:poss
2	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 long	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 long	cop
4	excessively	excessively	ADV	_	5 long	advmod
5	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 standing	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 standing	cc
8	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 standing	nsubj
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 standing	aux
10	standing	stand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 long	conj
11	among	among	ADP	_	13 treetops	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 treetops	det
13	treetops	treetop	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 standing	obl
14	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	18 live	advmod
15	only	only	ADV	_	16 birds	advmod
16	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 live	nsubj
17	usually	usually	ADV	_	18 live	advmod
18	live	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 standing	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	is	past	Her neck		excessively, long property	tree rules
2	stand	past · progressive	she	the treetops		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent among treetop=Location
3	live	present	birds		usually property	vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Because the excessive length of her neck meant that she had to be a serpent, which every bird knows well

The tree, 20 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	8 meant	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 length	det
3	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 length	amod
4	length	length	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 meant	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 neck	case
6	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 neck	nmod:poss
7	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 length	nmod
8	meant	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 had	mark
10	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 had	nsubj
11	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 meant	ccomp
12	to	to	PART	_	15 serpent	mark
13	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	15 serpent	cop
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 serpent	det
15	serpent	serpent	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 had	obj
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 knows	punct
17	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	20 knows	obj
18	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	19 bird	det
19	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 knows	nsubj
20	knows	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 serpent	acl:relcl
21	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	20 knows	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	past	the excessive length of length's neck			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	have	past	length			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	is a	to-infinitive		a serpent		tree rules
4	know	present	every bird	a serpent	well property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer which=Stimulus

Option 4

The colour of her dress and the noise of her feet in the wood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 colour	det
2	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 dress	case
4	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 dress	nmod:poss
5	dress	dress	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 colour	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 noise	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 noise	det
8	noise	noise	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 colour	conj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 feet	case
10	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 feet	nmod:poss
11	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 noise	nmod
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 wood	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 wood	det
14	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 colour	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	noise		her feet						nom noise «event intransitive»: of=agent

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/books/10-alice-ch5-part2-the-pigeon/e2/