Exam question 3 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Ugly Duckling, part 223: the u…

What was the principal reason the wild geese gave for inviting the duckling away with them?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: wild geese · What happens: be, give, invite away · To what, where: principal reason, duckling

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1012 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Ugly Duckling, part 223: the ugly duckling hatches, is scorned, and flees to a moor» 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	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past 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	8 geese	det
7	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 geese	amod
8	geese	goose	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 gave	nsubj
9	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	acl:relcl
10	for	for	SCONJ	_	11 inviting	mark
11	inviting	invite	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 gave	advcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 duckling	det
13	duckling	duckling	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 inviting	obj
14	away	away	ADV	_	11 inviting	advmod
15	with	with	ADP	_	16 them	case
16	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 inviting	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal reason		tree rules
2	give	past	the wild geese	the principal reason not said here		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
3	invite away	gerund	the wild geese not said here	the duckling	with geese = goose; away property	vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent duckling=Recipient

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

to see the sea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	to	to	PART	_	2 see	mark
2	see	see	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sea	det
4	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 see	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see	to-infinitive		the sea					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sea=Stimulus

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

to find him a wife

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	to	to	PART	_	2 find	mark
2	find	find	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 find	obj
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 wife	det
5	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 find	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	find	to-infinitive		him = he					vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent he=Theme wife=Attribute

Option 3

to help

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	to	to	PART	_	2 help	mark
2	help	help	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	to-infinitive							vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

because they felt sorry for him in the farmyard

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	because	because	SCONJ	_	3 felt	mark
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 felt	nsubj
3	felt	feel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	sorry	sorry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 felt	xcomp
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 him	case
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 felt	obl
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 farmyard	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 farmyard	det
9	farmyard	farmyard	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 felt	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feel	past	they			the farmyard		for him = he; sorry property	vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for he=Theme in farmyard=Location

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/1012-pg27200-part223/e3/