Exam question 2 · Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 38: the Prince dines…

What reason does the narrator give for the Prince's failure to remember his errand?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: reason, Prince · What happens: give, remember, fail · To what, where: errand

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1451 «Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 38: the Prince dines with the White Cat and goes home with a tiny dog» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 reason	det
2	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	nsubj:outer
3	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 give	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 narrator	det
5	narrator	narrator	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	nsubj
6	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	for	for	ADP	_	11 failure	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Prince	det
9	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 failure	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 Prince	case
11	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	obl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 remember	mark
13	remember	remember	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 give	advcl
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 errand	nmod:poss
15	errand	errand	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 remember	obj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 give	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	give	present · do-support	what reason		for the Prince's failure	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent for failure=Asset
2	remember	to-infinitive	what reason not said here	narrator's errand		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent errand=Theme
3	fail		the Prince			nom failure «act intransitive»: 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

He drinks a crystal goblet that contains a magic draught brewed by the White Cat's own maids in secret

The tree, 20 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	2 drinks	nsubj
2	drinks	drink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 goblet	det
4	crystal	crystal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 goblet	amod
5	goblet	goblet	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 drinks	obj
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 contains	nsubj
7	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 goblet	acl:relcl
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 draught	det
9	magic	magic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 draught	amod
10	draught	draught	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 contains	obj
11	brewed	brew	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 draught	acl
12	by	by	ADP	_	18 maids	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 Cat	det
14	White	White	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 Cat	compound
15	Cat	Cat	PROPN	Number=Sing	18 maids	nmod:poss
16	's	's	PART	_	15 Cat	case
17	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 maids	amod
18	maids	maid	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 brewed	obl
19	in	in	ADP	_	20 secret	case
20	secret	secret	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 maids	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	drink	present	He	a crystal goblet		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent goblet=Patient
2	contain	present	a crystal goblet	a magic draught		vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot draught=Theme
3	brew	participle		a magic draught not said here	by the White Cat's own maids in secret	vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

He drinks a crystal goblet that contains a magic draught, and then he forgets the errand entirely

The tree, 17 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	2 drinks	nsubj
2	drinks	drink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 goblet	det
4	crystal	crystal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 goblet	amod
5	goblet	goblet	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 drinks	obj
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 contains	nsubj
7	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 goblet	acl:relcl
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 draught	det
9	magic	magic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 draught	amod
10	draught	draught	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 contains	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 forgets	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 forgets	cc
13	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	15 forgets	advmod
14	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 forgets	nsubj
15	forgets	forget	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 drinks	conj
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 errand	det
17	errand	errand	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 forgets	obj
18	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	15 forgets	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	drink	present	He	a crystal goblet			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent goblet=Patient
2	contain	present	a crystal goblet	a magic draught			vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot draught=Theme
3	forget	present	he	the errand	then	entirely property	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He drank too much wine at the feast

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 drank	nsubj
2	drank	drink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 much	advmod
4	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 wine	amod
5	wine	wine	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 drank	obj
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 feast	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 feast	det
8	feast	feast	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 drank	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drink	past	He	much wine		the feast			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wine=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He drinks a crystal goblet that contains a magic draught

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 drinks	nsubj
2	drinks	drink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 goblet	det
4	crystal	crystal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 goblet	amod
5	goblet	goblet	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 drinks	obj
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 contains	nsubj
7	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 goblet	acl:relcl
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 draught	det
9	magic	magic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 draught	amod
10	draught	draught	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 contains	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drink	present	He	a crystal goblet					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent goblet=Patient
2	contain	present	a crystal goblet	a magic draught					vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot draught=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/1451-pg503-part38/e2/