Exam question 4 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Ugly Duckling, part 14: the du…

What was the principal characteristic of the cottage the duckling eventually approached?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · What happens: be, approach · To what, where: principal characteristic, duckling

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1148 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Ugly Duckling, part 14: the duckling is bullied, flees to the moor, survives the hunt and reaches a cottage» 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 characteristic	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 characteristic	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 characteristic	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 characteristic	amod
5	characteristic	characteristic	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 cottage	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 cottage	det
8	cottage	cottage	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 characteristic	nmod
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 duckling	det
10	duckling	duckling	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 cottage	appos
11	eventually	eventually	ADV	_	12 approached	advmod
12	approached	approach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 duckling	acl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 characteristic	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal characteristic				of the cottage	tree rules
2	approach	participle		the duckling not said here				eventually property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

it was dilapidated

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 dilapidated	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 dilapidated	aux:pass
3	dilapidated	dilapidate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dilapidate	past · passive		it					tree rules

Option 2

it was rather lovely

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	4 lovely	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 lovely	cop
3	rather	rather	ADV	_	4 lovely	advmod
4	lovely	lovely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

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

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

it was dilapidated with a broken roof and door

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 dilapidated	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 dilapidated	aux:pass
3	dilapidated	dilapidate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	7 roof	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 roof	det
6	broken	break	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 roof	amod
7	roof	roof	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 dilapidated	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 door	cc
9	door	door	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 roof	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dilapidate	past · passive		it				with a broken roof and door	tree rules
2	break	participle							vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

it was badly dilapidated and falling apart

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	4 dilapidated	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 dilapidated	aux:pass
3	badly	badly	ADV	Degree=Pos	4 dilapidated	advmod
4	dilapidated	dilapidate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 falling	cc
6	falling	fall	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 dilapidated	conj
7	apart	apart	ADV	_	6 falling	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dilapidate	past · passive		it				badly property	tree rules
2	fall apart	gerund						apart property	vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1148-pg3027-part14/e4/