Exam question 1 · pg503, Whittington and His Cat, part 49: a hungry boy is t…

Upon what object did the protagonist first recline in a state of extreme debility?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: object, protagonist · What happens: do, recline · To what, where: protagonist, state

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1462 «pg503, Whittington and His Cat, part 49: a hungry boy is taken in, buys a cat, and sends her to sea» 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	Upon	upon	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 did	obj
3	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	nsubj
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 protagonist	det
6	protagonist	protagonist	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
7	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	8 recline	advmod
8	recline	recline	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 protagonist	acl
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 state	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 state	det
11	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 recline	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 debility	case
13	extreme	extreme	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 debility	amod
14	debility	debility	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 state	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	object	the protagonist					tree rules
2	recline	infinitive	the protagonist not said here			a state of extreme debility		first property	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in state=Location

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 · ← Mova's choice

Upon the stone doorstep of a wealthy merchant named Mr. Fitzwarren at the market

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Upon	upon	ADP	_	4 doorstep	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 doorstep	det
3	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 doorstep	compound
4	doorstep	doorstep	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 merchant	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 merchant	det
7	wealthy	wealthy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 merchant	amod
8	merchant	merchant	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 doorstep	nmod
9	named	name	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 merchant	acl
10	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 Fitzwarren	nmod:desc
11	Fitzwarren	Fitzwarren	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 named	xcomp
12	at	at	ADP	_	14 market	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 market	det
14	market	market	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 named	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	name	participle		a wealthy merchant not said here		the market			vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

On the threshold of a rich old shop in London's street

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	On	on	ADP	_	3 threshold	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 threshold	det
3	threshold	threshold	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	8 shop	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 shop	det
6	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 shop	amod
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 shop	amod
8	shop	shop	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 threshold	nmod
9	in	in	ADP	_	12 street	case
10	London	London	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 street	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 London	case
12	street	street	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 shop	nmod

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Upon the threshold of a merchant named Mr. Fitzwarren

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Upon	upon	ADP	_	3 threshold	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 threshold	det
3	threshold	threshold	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 merchant	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 merchant	det
6	merchant	merchant	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 threshold	nmod
7	named	name	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 merchant	acl
8	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 Fitzwarren	nmod:desc
9	Fitzwarren	Fitzwarren	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 named	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	name	participle		a merchant not said here					vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Beside the gate of a merchant named Mr. Smith

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Beside	beside	ADP	_	3 gate	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 gate	det
3	gate	gate	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 merchant	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 merchant	det
6	merchant	merchant	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 gate	nmod
7	named	name	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 merchant	acl
8	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 Smith	nmod:desc
9	Smith	Smith	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 named	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	name	participle		a merchant not said here					vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1462-pg503-part49/e1/