Exam question 2 · The Lilac Fairy Book, The Shifty Lad, part 1: a clever boy…

What was the principal reason the widow saved her money?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: widow · What happens: be, save · To what, where: principal reason, money

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1276 «The Lilac Fairy Book, The Shifty Lad, part 1: a clever boy's mother saves up to send him to school and then to a trade» 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	7 widow	det
7	widow	widow	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 saved	nsubj
8	saved	save	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	acl:relcl
9	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 money	nmod:poss
10	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 saved	obj
11	?	?	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	save	past	the widow	widow's money					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=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

To buy a new cow for the farm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 buy	mark
2	buy	buy	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 cow	det
4	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cow	amod
5	cow	cow	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 buy	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 farm	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 farm	det
8	farm	farm	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 buy	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	buy	to-infinitive		a new cow				for the farm	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent cow=Theme for farm=Beneficiary

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

To send her clever son to a fine school far away across the sea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 send	mark
2	send	send	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 son	nmod:poss
4	clever	clever	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 son	amod
5	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 send	obj
6	to	to	ADP	_	9 school	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 school	det
8	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 school	amod
9	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 send	obl
10	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	11 away	advmod
11	away	away	ADV	_	2 send	advmod
12	across	across	ADP	_	14 sea	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 sea	det
14	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 send	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send	to-infinitive		her clever son		the sea		to a fine school; away property	vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent son=Theme to school=Destination

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

To send her clever son to school

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 send	mark
2	send	send	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 son	nmod:poss
4	clever	clever	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 son	amod
5	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 send	obj
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 school	case
7	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 send	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send	to-infinitive		her clever son		school			vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent son=Theme to school=Destination

Option 4

To buy a grand house in the city so that her son could become a rich lawyer one day

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 buy	mark
2	buy	buy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 become	advcl
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 house	det
4	grand	grand	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 house	amod
5	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 buy	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 city	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 city	det
8	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 buy	obl
9	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	14 become	mark
10	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 so	fixed
11	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 son	nmod:poss
12	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 become	nsubj
13	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 become	aux
14	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 lawyer	det
16	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 lawyer	amod
17	lawyer	lawyer	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 become	xcomp
18	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	19 day	nummod
19	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 become	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	buy	to-infinitive	her son not said here	a grand house		the city			vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Theme
2	become	could	her son	a rich lawyer			day		vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: 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/1276-pg3454-part1/e2/