Exam question 4 · Andersen's Tales, The Ugly Duckling, part 1: the ducklings…

What does the narrator state about the mother's reason for permitting the ducklings to observe the leaves?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: reason · What happens: do, permit, observe · To what, where: ducklings, leaves

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1011 «Andersen's Tales, The Ugly Duckling, part 1: the ducklings hatch under the burdock leaves» 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	root	root
2	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	acl:relcl
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 state	det
4	narrator	narrator	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 state	compound
5	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	about	about	ADP	_	10 reason	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 mother	det
8	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 reason	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 mother	case
10	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 state	nmod
11	for	for	SCONJ	_	12 permitting	mark
12	permitting	permit	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 reason	acl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 ducklings	det
14	ducklings	duckling	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 permitting	obj
15	to	to	PART	_	16 observe	mark
16	observe	observe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 permitting	advcl
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 leaves	det
18	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 observe	obj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	do	present			vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	permit	gerund	the mother's reason not said here	the ducklings	vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent duckling=Theme
3	observe	to-infinitive	the mother's reason not said here	the leaves	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent leaf=Topic

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

That they must eat the leaves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 eat	nsubj
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 eat	nsubj
3	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 eat	aux
4	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 leaves	det
6	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 eat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	must	That	the leaves					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Patient

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

That green is good for the eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 green	det
2	green	green	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 good	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 good	cop
4	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 eyes	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 eyes	det
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 good	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	that green					for the eyes; good property	tree rules

Option 3

To keep them warm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 keep	mark
2	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 keep	obj
4	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 keep	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	to-infinitive		them = they				warm property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

Option 4

That the leaves are sweet to see

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 sweet	nsubj
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 leaves	det
3	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 sweet	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 sweet	cop
5	sweet	sweet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 see	mark
7	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 sweet	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	That					sweet property	tree rules
2	see	to-infinitive	That not said here						vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

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/1011-pg27200-part222/e4/