Exam question 2 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir-Tree: the old tree is burn…

With reference to the passage, what did the rats say of the tree's story when they departed?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: passage, rats · What happens: do, say, depart · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1630 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir-Tree: the old tree is burned, and a new tale begins» 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	With	with	ADP	_	2 reference	case
2	reference	reference	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 passage	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 passage	det
5	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reference	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 did	punct
7	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	8 did	nsubj
8	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 passage	acl:relcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 rats	det
10	rats	rat	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 say	nsubj
11	say	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 did	parataxis
12	of	of	ADP	_	16 story	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 tree	det
14	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 story	nmod:poss
15	's	's	PART	_	14 tree	case
16	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 say	obl
17	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	19 departed	advmod
18	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 departed	nsubj
19	departed	depart	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 story	acl:relcl
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 reference	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	do	past	the passage		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	say speech: assert	present	the rats	of the tree's story	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	depart	past	rats = rat		vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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 it was very dull indeed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 dull	nsubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 dull	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 dull	cop
4	very	very	ADV	_	5 dull	advmod
5	dull	dull	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	indeed	indeed	ADV	_	5 dull	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	That					dull, indeed property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

That it was a very poor story

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	7 story	nsubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 story	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 story	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 story	det
5	very	very	ADV	_	6 poor	advmod
6	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 story	amod
7	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	That	a poor story					tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

That it was a very poor story and they had never heard such nonsense before

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	7 story	nsubj
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 story	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 story	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 story	det
5	very	very	ADV	_	6 poor	advmod
6	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 story	amod
7	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 heard	cc
9	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 heard	nsubj:pass
10	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 heard	aux
11	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	12 heard	advmod
12	heard	hear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 story	conj
13	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 nonsense	amod
14	nonsense	nonsense	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 heard	obj
15	before	before	ADV	_	12 heard	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	That	a poor story					tree rules
2	not hear	past · perfect · passive		they				before property	tree rules

Option 4

A poor tale

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 tale	det
2	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 tale	amod
3	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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/1630-pg5615-part19/e2/