Exam question 2 · Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part 2: The baby, the pig…

Ascertain the reply of the Cheshire Cat to the protagonist's enquiry as to which way she ought to go.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Cat, protagonist · What happens: ascertain, go, reply, enquire · To what, where: reply, Cheshire Cat

This is exam question 2 of lesson 12 «Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part 2: The baby, the pig and the Cheshire Cat» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reply	det
3	reply	reply	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 Cat	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Cat	det
6	Cheshire	Cheshire	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Cat	compound
7	Cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reply	nmod
8	to	to	ADP	_	12 enquiry	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 protagonist	det
10	protagonist	protagonist	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 enquiry	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 protagonist	case
12	enquiry	enquiry	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obl
13	as	as	ADP	ExtPos=ADP	16 way	case
14	to	to	ADP	_	13 as	fixed
15	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	16 way	det
16	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obl
17	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 go	nsubj
18	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	20 go	aux
19	to	to	PART	_	20 go	mark
20	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 way	acl:relcl
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reply of the Cheshire Cat	to the protagonist's enquiry; as which way	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reply=Topic
2	go	ought	Cat			vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	reply			the Cheshire Cat		nom reply «communication transitive»: of=patient
4	enquire		the protagonist			nom enquiry «communication transitive»: poss=agent

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

That the choice was hers to make alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 choice	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 choice	det
3	choice	choice	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hers	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 hers	cop
5	hers	her	PRON	Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 make	mark
7	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 hers	acl
8	alone	alone	ADV	_	7 make	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	that choice	hers = she					tree rules
2	make	to-infinitive						alone property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset

Option 2

That she must ask the Duchess about it first

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 ask	nsubj
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 ask	nsubj
3	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 ask	aux
4	ask	ask	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Duchess	det
6	Duchess	duchess	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ask	obj
7	about	about	ADP	_	8 it	case
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 Duchess	nmod
9	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	4 ask	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	must	That		the Duchess			first property	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent duchess=Recipient about it=Topic

Option 3

That she should follow the cat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 follow	nsubj
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 follow	nsubj
3	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 follow	aux
4	follow	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cat	det
6	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 follow	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	should	That	the cat					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cat=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

That it depended upon where she wished to arrive

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 depended	nsubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 depended	nsubj
3	depended	depend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 where	case
5	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	7 wished	advmod
6	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 wished	nsubj
7	wished	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 depended	ccomp
8	to	to	PART	_	9 arrive	mark
9	arrive	arrive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 wished	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	depend	past	That	tree rules
2	wish	past	she	vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	arrive not said to happen	to-infinitive	she not said here	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/e2/