Exam question 3 · Alice in Wonderland, chapter VII, part 1: A Mad Tea-Party…

Ascertain the answer furnished by the Hatter in respect of the riddle «Why is a raven like a writing-desk?»

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, furnish, be, respect · To what, where: answer, respect, raven, riddle

This is exam question 3 of lesson 13 «Alice in Wonderland, chapter VII, part 1: A Mad Tea-Party (no room, riddles and Time)» 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 answer	det
3	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	furnished	furnish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 answer	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 Hatter	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Hatter	det
7	Hatter	Hatter	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 furnished	obl
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 respect	case
9	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 furnished	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 riddle	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 riddle	det
12	riddle	riddle	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 respect	nmod
13	«	«	PUNCT	_	17 raven	punct
14	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	17 raven	advmod
15	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 raven	cop
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 raven	det
17	raven	raven	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 riddle	appos
18	like	like	ADP	_	22 desk	case
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 desk	det
20	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 desk	compound
21	-	-	PUNCT	_	20 writing	punct
22	desk	desk	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 raven	nmod
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct
24	»	»	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the answer			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent answer=Topic
2	furnish	participle		the answer not said here	respect of the riddle	by the Hatter	vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	is a in a quote	present		a raven		like a writing desk	tree rules
4	respect			the riddle			nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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

That the answer was a secret

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 answer	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 answer	det
3	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 secret	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 secret	cop
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 secret	det
6	secret	secret	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	that answer	a secret					tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

That he had not the slightest idea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 had	nsubj
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 had	nsubj
3	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 idea	advmod
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 idea	det
6	slightest	slight	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 idea	amod
7	idea	idea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	That	the slightest idea					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent idea=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

That it has no answer at all, he says

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 has	nsubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 has	nsubj
3	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 says	ccomp
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 answer	det
5	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	obj
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 all	case
7	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 answer	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 has	punct
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 says	nsubj
10	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	That	no answer		all			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent answer=Patient
2	say speech: assert	present	he						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic

Option 4

That he knows it, but will not tell

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 knows	nsubj
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 knows	nsubj
3	knows	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 knows	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 tell	punct
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 tell	cc
7	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 tell	aux
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 tell	advmod
9	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 knows	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	know	present	That	it					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus
2	not tell speech: assert	future	That not said here						vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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.

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