Exam question 2 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Ugly Duckling, part 224: the d…

What was the principal reason the old woman retained the duckling in her cottage?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: old woman · What happens: be, retain · To what, where: principal reason, duckling, cottage

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1013 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Ugly Duckling, part 224: the duckling survives the hunters, a cottage, and a freezing winter» 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 woman	det
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 woman	amod
8	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 retained	nsubj
9	retained	retain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	acl:relcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 duckling	det
11	duckling	duckling	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 retained	obj
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 cottage	case
13	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 cottage	nmod:poss
14	cottage	cottage	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 retained	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal reason					tree rules
2	retain	past	the old woman	the duckling		woman's cottage			tree rules

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

It was cute

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 cute	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 cute	cop
3	cute	cute	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	It					cute property	tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

She liked it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 liked	nsubj
2	liked	like	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 liked	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	like	past	She	it					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot it=Theme

Option 3

She wanted it to become a fine goose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 become	mark
5	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wanted	xcomp
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 goose	det
7	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 goose	amod
8	goose	goose	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	She	it					tree rules
2	become not said to happen	to-infinitive		a fine goose					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

She hoped it would prove to be a female who laid eggs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 hoped	nsubj
2	hoped	hope	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 prove	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 prove	aux
5	prove	prove	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 hoped	advcl
6	to	to	PART	_	9 female	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 female	cop
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 female	det
9	female	female	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 prove	ccomp
10	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 laid	nsubj
11	laid	lay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 female	acl:relcl
12	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 laid	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	hope	past	She		vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot
2	prove	would	it		vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent
3	is a	to-infinitive		a female	tree rules
4	lay	past	a female	eggs	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Result

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/1013-pg27200-part224/e2/