Exam question 4 · The Lilac Fairy Book, The Shifty Lad, part 1: a clever boy…

Under what circumstances was the son to be apprenticed to a trade?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: circumstances · What happens: be, apprentice · To what, where: son

This is exam question 4 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	Under	under	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
3	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 son	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 son	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 son	det
6	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 what	acl:relcl
7	to	to	PART	_	9 apprenticed	mark
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 apprenticed	aux:pass
9	apprenticed	apprentice	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 son	acl
10	to	to	ADP	_	12 trade	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 trade	det
12	trade	trade	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 apprenticed	obl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 what	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	circumstances	the son					tree rules
2	apprentice	to-infinitive · passive						to a trade	vn orphan-29.7 «NP V NP»

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

As soon as he was old enough, in a trade of his own choosing

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	As	as	ADV	_	2 soon	advmod
2	soon	soon	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 old	advmod
3	as	as	ADP	_	6 old	case
4	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 old	nsubj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 old	cop
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	enough	enough	ADV	_	6 old	advmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 trade	punct
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 trade	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 trade	det
11	trade	trade	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 old	conj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 own	case
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 own	nmod:poss
14	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 trade	nmod
15	choosing	choose	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 trade	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	he					enough, old, soon property	tree rules
2	choose	gerund	a trade of his own not said here						vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

After school, in a trade his mother chose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	After	after	ADP	_	2 school	case
2	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 chose	obl
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 trade	punct
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 trade	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 trade	det
6	trade	trade	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 school	conj
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 mother	nmod:poss
8	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 chose	nsubj
9	chose	choose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	choose	past	his mother				after school and a trade		vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Never, he stayed home

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 stayed	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Never	punct
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 stayed	nsubj
4	stayed	stay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	home	home	ADV	_	4 stayed	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not stay	past	he					home property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

At age ten, as a smith

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	At	at	ADP	_	2 age	case
2	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 age	flat
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 smith	punct
5	as	as	ADP	_	7 smith	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 smith	det
7	smith	smith	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 age	conj

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

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/e4/