Exam question 3 · Andersen's Tales, The Toad: a toad climbs out of a well an…

What is the principal reason the hens give for abandoning their attack upon the caterpillar?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: hens · What happens: be, give, abandon, attack · To what, where: principal reason, attack

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1004 «Andersen's Tales, The Toad: a toad climbs out of a well and goes hunting for a better world» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	5 reason	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reason	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 reason	amod
5	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 hens	det
7	hens	hen	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 give	nsubj
8	give	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	acl:relcl
9	for	for	SCONJ	_	10 abandoning	mark
10	abandoning	abandon	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 give	advcl
11	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 attack	nmod:poss
12	attack	attack	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 abandoning	obj
13	upon	upon	ADP	_	15 caterpillar	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 caterpillar	det
15	caterpillar	caterpillar	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 abandoning	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	present		the principal reason		tree rules
2	give	present	the hens	the principal reason not said here		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
3	abandon	gerund	the hens not said here	hens's attack	upon the caterpillar	vn leave-51.2 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme attack=Source
4	attack		hens = hen			nom attack «act transitive»: poss=agent

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

They deem the caterpillar too small to be worth eating, so they leave for their own dinner

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 deem	nsubj
2	deem	deem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 caterpillar	det
4	caterpillar	caterpillar	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 deem	obj
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 small	advmod
6	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 deem	advcl
7	to	to	PART	_	9 worth	mark
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 worth	cop
9	worth	worth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 small	conj
10	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 worth	xcomp
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 leave	punct
12	so	so	ADV	_	14 leave	advmod
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 leave	nsubj
14	leave	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 deem	conj
15	for	for	ADP	_	18 dinner	case
16	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 dinner	nmod:poss
17	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 dinner	amod
18	dinner	dinner	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 leave	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	deem	present	They	the caterpillar		vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent caterpillar=Attribute
2	is	to-infinitive	They not said here		worth property	tree rules
3	eat	gerund	They not said here			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	leave	present	they		for their own dinner	vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent for dinner=Recipient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They deem the caterpillar too small to be worth eating

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 deem	nsubj
2	deem	deem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 caterpillar	det
4	caterpillar	caterpillar	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 deem	obj
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 small	advmod
6	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 deem	advcl
7	to	to	PART	_	9 worth	mark
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 worth	cop
9	worth	worth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 small	conj
10	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 worth	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	deem	present	They	the caterpillar		vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent caterpillar=Attribute
2	is	to-infinitive	They not said here		worth property	tree rules
3	eat	gerund	They not said here			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

They deem the caterpillar too small and too tough to be worth eating at all

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 deem	nsubj
2	deem	deem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 caterpillar	det
4	caterpillar	caterpillar	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 deem	obj
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 small	advmod
6	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 deem	advcl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 tough	cc
8	too	too	ADV	_	9 tough	advmod
9	tough	tough	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 small	conj
10	to	to	PART	_	12 worth	mark
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 worth	cop
12	worth	worth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 tough	conj
13	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 worth	xcomp
14	at	at	ADP	_	15 all	case
15	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	13 eating	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	deem	present	They	the caterpillar			vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent caterpillar=Attribute
2	is	to-infinitive	They not said here			worth property	tree rules
3	eat	gerund	They not said here		all		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

They think it is not worth eating

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 think	nsubj
2	think	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 worth	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 worth	cop
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 worth	advmod
6	worth	worth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 think	ccomp
7	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 worth	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	present	They		vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	not is	present	it	worth property	tree rules
3	eat	gerund			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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