Exam question 2 · Perrault's Tales, Little Thumb, part 13: lost again, birds…

In the context of the narrative, what is the principal reason the parents gave for abandoning the children a second time?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: narrative, parents · What happens: be, give, abandon · To what, where: principal reason, context, children

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1088 «Perrault's Tales, Little Thumb, part 13: lost again, birds eat the bread, a storm in the night» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 context	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 context	det
3	context	context	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 gave	obl
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 narrative	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 narrative	det
6	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 context	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 reason	punct
8	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	12 reason	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 reason	cop
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 reason	det
11	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 reason	amod
12	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 narrative	acl:relcl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 parents	det
14	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 gave	nsubj
15	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
16	for	for	SCONJ	_	17 abandoning	mark
17	abandoning	abandon	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 gave	advcl
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 children	det
19	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 abandoning	obj
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 time	det
21	second	second	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	22 time	amod
22	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 abandoning	obl:unmarked
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	15 gave	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	is a	present	the narrative	the principal reason			tree rules
2	give	past	the parents		the context of the narrative		vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
3	abandon	gerund	the parents not said here	the children		time	vn leave-51.2 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme child=Source

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 right answer

Their extreme poverty and inability to feed them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 poverty	nmod:poss
2	extreme	extreme	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 poverty	amod
3	poverty	poverty	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 inability	cc
5	inability	inability	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 poverty	conj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 feed	mark
7	feed	feed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 poverty	acl
8	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 feed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feed	to-infinitive		poverty					vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient

Option 2

Their wish to protect themselves from the children's constant begging and crying for bread at night

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 wish	nmod:poss
2	wish	wish	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 protect	nsubj
3	to	to	PART	_	4 protect	mark
4	protect	protect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	4 protect	obj
6	from	from	ADP	_	11 begging	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 children	det
8	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 begging	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 children	case
10	constant	constant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 begging	amod
11	begging	begging	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 protect	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 crying	cc
13	crying	cry	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 begging	conj
14	for	for	ADP	_	15 bread	case
15	bread	bread	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 crying	obl
16	at	at	ADP	_	17 night	case
17	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 protect	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	protect	to-infinitive	Their wish	themselves = they	night	from the children's constant begging	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent themselves=Beneficiary from begging=Theme
2	cry speech: express	gerund	Their wish not said here			for bread	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S_INF»: agent=Agent for bread=Recipient
3	wish		Their = they				nom wish «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Their extreme poverty, which had left them unable to feed the children any longer

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 poverty	nmod:poss
2	extreme	extreme	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 poverty	amod
3	poverty	poverty	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 left	punct
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 left	nsubj:pass
6	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 left	aux
7	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 poverty	acl:relcl
8	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 left	obj
9	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 left	xcomp
10	to	to	PART	_	11 feed	mark
11	feed	feed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 unable	xcomp
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 children	det
13	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 feed	obj
14	any	any	ADV	_	15 longer	advmod
15	longer	long	ADV	Degree=Cmp	11 feed	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leave	past · perfect · passive		Their extreme poverty				unable property	vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme they=Attribute
2	feed	to-infinitive	Their extreme poverty not said here		the children			long property	vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Recipient

Option 4

Their extreme poverty and lack of food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 poverty	nmod:poss
2	extreme	extreme	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 poverty	amod
3	poverty	poverty	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 lack	cc
5	lack	lack	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 poverty	conj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 food	case
7	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 lack	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lack			food					nom lack «state transitive»: of=patient

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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