Exam question 4 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Silver Shilling, part 217: Joh…

Which event in the passage precedes John's encounter with the open coffin?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: event, John · What happens: precede, encounter · To what, where: encounter

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1006 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Silver Shilling, part 217: John buries his father and sets out into the 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 event	det
2	event	event	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 precedes	nsubj
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 passage	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 passage	det
5	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 event	nmod
6	precedes	precede	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	John	John	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 encounter	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 John	case
9	encounter	encounter	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 precedes	obj
10	with	with	ADP	_	13 coffin	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 coffin	det
12	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 coffin	amod
13	coffin	coffin	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 precedes	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 precedes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	precede	present	which event in the passage	John's encounter				with the open coffin	vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme encounter=Co-Theme
2	encounter		John						nom encounter «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

the old beggar taking his shillings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 beggar	det
2	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 beggar	amod
3	beggar	beggar	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	taking	take	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 beggar	acl
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 shillings	nmod:poss
6	shillings	shilling	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 taking	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take	gerund	the old beggar not said here	his shillings					vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shilling=Theme

Option 2

the ringer waving his red cap as John left the village

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ringer	det
2	ringer	ringer	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 left	nsubj
3	waving	wave	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 ringer	acl
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 cap	nmod:poss
5	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 cap	amod
6	cap	cap	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 waving	obj
7	as	as	ADP	_	8 John	case
8	John	John	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 waving	obl
9	left	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 village	det
11	village	village	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 left	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wave	gerund	the ringer not said here	ringer's red cap				as John	vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cap=Patient
2	leave	past	the ringer	the village					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent village=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

the two men arguing outside the gate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 men	det
2	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 men	nummod
3	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	arguing	argue	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 men	acl
5	outside	outside	ADP	_	7 gate	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 gate	det
7	gate	gate	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 arguing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	argue speech: disagree	gerund	the two men not said here					outside the gate	vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

a violent storm forcing him to shelter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 storm	det
2	violent	violent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 storm	amod
3	storm	storm	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	forcing	force	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 storm	acl
5	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 forcing	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 shelter	mark
7	shelter	shelter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 forcing	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	force	gerund	a violent storm not said here		him = he				vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient
2	shelter	to-infinitive	a violent storm not said here						vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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/books/1006-pg27200-part217/e4/