Exam question 4 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 1: a mirror b…

Under what circumstances did Kay acquire the splinter that altered his disposition?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: circumstances, splinter · What happens: acquire, alter · To what, where: splinter, disposition

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1624 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 1: a mirror breaks and Kay gets a splinter» 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=Rel	6 acquire	obl
3	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 acquire	nsubj
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 acquire	aux
5	Kay	Kay	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 acquire	nsubj
6	acquire	acquire	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 splinter	det
8	splinter	splinter	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 acquire	obj
9	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 altered	nsubj
10	altered	alter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 splinter	acl:relcl
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 disposition	nmod:poss
12	disposition	disposition	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 altered	obj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 acquire	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	acquire	past · do-support	circumstances	the splinter					vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset splinter=Theme
2	alter	past	the splinter	Kay's disposition					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent disposition=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

While staring at a painting in the cold, after the bell rang at noon

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	While	while	SCONJ	_	2 staring	mark
2	staring	stare	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 rang	advcl
3	at	at	ADP	_	5 painting	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 painting	det
5	painting	painting	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 staring	obl
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 cold	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 cold	det
8	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 staring	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 staring	punct
10	after	after	ADP	_	12 bell	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 bell	det
12	bell	bell	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 rang	obl
13	rang	ring	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
14	at	at	ADP	_	15 noon	case
15	noon	noon	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 rang	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stare	gerund						in the cold; at a painting	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at painting=Theme
2	ring	past					after the bell; noon		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

When he was looking at a book

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	When	when	SCONJ	_	4 looking	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 looking	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 looking	aux
4	looking	look	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 book	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 book	det
7	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 looking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	past · progressive	he					at a book	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at book=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

While looking at a picture book in summer, after the clock had struck five

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	While	while	SCONJ	_	2 looking	mark
2	looking	look	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 struck	advcl
3	at	at	ADP	_	6 book	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 book	det
5	picture	picture	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 book	compound
6	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 looking	obl
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 summer	case
8	summer	summer	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 book	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 looking	punct
10	after	after	ADP	_	12 clock	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 clock	det
12	clock	clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 struck	obl
13	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 struck	aux
14	struck	strike	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
15	five	five	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 struck	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	gerund						at a picture book in summer	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at book=Theme
2	strike	past · perfect		five			after the clock		vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent five=Patient

Option 4

On a winter night, at home

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	On	on	ADP	_	4 night	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 night	det
3	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 night	compound
4	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 home	punct
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 home	case
7	home	home	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 night	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/1624-pg5615-part13/e4/