Exam question 3 · Japanese Fairy Tales, The Mirror, part 21: a dying mother…

What reason did the father give for finding the stepmother's accusation impossible to accept?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: father, accusation, stepmother · What happens: give, find, accept, accuse · To what, where: accusation

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1361 «Japanese Fairy Tales, The Mirror, part 21: a dying mother gives her daughter a mirror, and a stepmother accuses the girl» 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	6 give	obl
2	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 give	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 father	det
5	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	nsubj
6	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	8 finding	mark
8	finding	find	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 give	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 stepmother	det
10	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 accusation	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 stepmother	case
12	accusation	accusation	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 finding	obj
13	impossible	impossible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 finding	xcomp
14	to	to	PART	_	15 accept	mark
15	accept	accept	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 impossible	xcomp
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 give	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	give	past · do-support	the father			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	find	gerund	the father not said here	the stepmother's accusation	impossible property	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent accusation=Topic
3	accept	to-infinitive	the stepmother's accusation not said here			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	accuse		the stepmother			nom accusation «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 · ✓ the right answer

he could not credit that his daughter had acquired such knowledge

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 credit	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 credit	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 credit	advmod
4	credit	credit	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 acquired	mark
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 daughter	nmod:poss
7	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquired	nsubj
8	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 acquired	aux
9	acquired	acquire	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 credit	acl:relcl
10	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 knowledge	amod
11	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquired	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	acquire	past · perfect	his daughter	such knowledge					vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knowledge=Theme

Option 2

he could not credit that his daughter had acquired such knowledge from any living teacher in the land

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 acquired	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 acquired	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 credit	advmod
4	credit	credit	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquired	nsubj:pass
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 acquired	mark
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 daughter	nmod:poss
7	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquired	nsubj
8	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 acquired	aux
9	acquired	acquire	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
10	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 knowledge	amod
11	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquired	obj
12	from	from	ADP	_	15 teacher	case
13	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	15 teacher	det
14	living	living	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 teacher	compound
15	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquired	obl
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 land	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 land	det
18	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquired	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	acquire	could · perfect · passive		he		the land		from any living teacher	tree rules

Option 3

he thought his wife was simply jealous and tired

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 thought	nsubj
2	thought	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 wife	nmod:poss
4	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 jealous	nsubj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 jealous	cop
6	simply	simply	ADV	_	7 jealous	advmod
7	jealous	jealous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 thought	ccomp
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 tired	cc
9	tired	tired	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 jealous	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	past	he		vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	his wife	jealous, simply property	tree rules
3	be		his wife not said here		tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

he could not credit that his daughter had acquired such knowledge, since she had never left the house

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 acquired	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 acquired	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 credit	advmod
4	credit	credit	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquired	nsubj:pass
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 acquired	mark
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 daughter	nmod:poss
7	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquired	nsubj
8	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 acquired	aux
9	acquired	acquire	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
10	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 knowledge	amod
11	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquired	obj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 left	punct
13	since	since	SCONJ	_	17 left	mark
14	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 left	nsubj
15	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 left	aux
16	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	17 left	advmod
17	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	9 acquired	parataxis
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 house	det
19	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 left	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	acquire	could · perfect · passive		he					tree rules
2	not leave	past · perfect	daughter	the house					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=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.

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