Exam question 4 · pg3027, The Girl at the Old Woman's House, part 17: ashes…

Indicate the reason the maiden gave for refusing to disclose the identity of her assistants.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, maiden · What happens: indicate, give, refuse, not disclose · To what, where: reason, identity

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1151 «pg3027, The Girl at the Old Woman's House, part 17: ashes in the sieve, cats weave, black casket» 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	Indicate	indicate	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Indicate	obj
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 maiden	det
5	maiden	maiden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 gave	nsubj
6	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	8 refusing	mark
8	refusing	refuse	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 gave	advcl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 disclose	mark
10	disclose	disclose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 refusing	xcomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 identity	det
12	identity	identity	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 disclose	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 assistants	case
14	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 assistants	nmod:poss
15	assistants	assistant	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 identity	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Indicate	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	indicate	imperative	you not said here	the reason	vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot reason=Topic
2	give	past	the maiden	the reason not said here	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
3	refuse	gerund	the maiden not said here		vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
4	not disclose	to-infinitive	the maiden not said here	the identity of her assistants	vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot identity=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 · ← Mova's choice

Protection of her little friends from the old woman

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Protection	protection	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 friends	case
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 friends	nmod:poss
4	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 friends	amod
5	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Protection	nmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	9 woman	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 woman	det
8	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 woman	amod
9	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 friends	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	protect			her little friends from the old woman					nom protection «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Protection of her friends

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Protection	protection	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 friends	case
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 friends	nmod:poss
4	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Protection	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	protect			her friends					nom protection «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

Care for her little helpers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Care	care	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	for	for	ADP	_	5 helpers	case
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 helpers	nmod:poss
4	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 helpers	amod
5	helpers	helper	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Care	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

Concern that the sparrows and cats might be punished by the old lady

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Concern	concern	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 punished	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sparrows	det
4	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 punished	nsubj:pass
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 cats	cc
6	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 sparrows	conj
7	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 punished	aux
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 punished	aux:pass
9	punished	punish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Concern	advcl
10	by	by	ADP	_	13 lady	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 lady	det
12	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 lady	amod
13	lady	lady	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 punished	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	punish	might · passive	the old lady	the sparrows and cats					vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=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/1151-pg3027-part17/e4/