Exam question 3 · The Yellow Fairy Book, The Cat and the Mouse in Partnershi…

What pretext did the Cat offer the Mouse to justify her absence from the dwelling?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: pretext, Cat · What happens: offer, justify, absent · To what, where: Mouse, absence, dwelling

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1677 «The Yellow Fairy Book, The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership, part 1: the cat and mouse hide a pot of fat in the church, and the cat secretly eats it» 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 pretext	det
2	pretext	pretext	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 offer	nsubj
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 offer	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Cat	det
5	Cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 offer	nsubj
6	offer	offer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Mouse	det
8	Mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 offer	obj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 justify	mark
10	justify	justify	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 offer	xcomp
11	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 absence	nmod:poss
12	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 justify	obj
13	from	from	ADP	_	15 dwelling	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 dwelling	det
15	dwelling	dwelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 justify	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 offer	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	offer	past · do-support	what pretext	the Mouse		tree rules
2	justify speech: other not said to happen	to-infinitive	what pretext not said here	Cat's absence	the dwelling	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent absence=Topic
3	absent		Cat			nom absence «state 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

Attendance as godmother at her cousin's child's christening

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Attendance	attendance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	as	as	ADP	_	3 godmother	case
3	godmother	godmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Attendance	nmod
4	at	at	ADP	_	10 christening	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 cousin	nmod:poss
6	cousin	cousin	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 child	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 cousin	case
8	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 christening	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 child	case
10	christening	christening	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Attendance	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	christen		her cousin's child						nom christening «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Attendance as godmother at a christening of her cousin's child held at the village church on Sunday

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Attendance	attendance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	as	as	ADP	_	3 godmother	case
3	godmother	godmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Attendance	nmod
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 christening	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 christening	det
6	christening	christening	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Attendance	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	11 child	case
8	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 cousin	nmod:poss
9	cousin	cousin	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 child	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 cousin	case
11	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 christening	nmod
12	held	hold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 child	acl
13	at	at	ADP	_	16 church	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 church	det
15	village	village	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 church	compound
16	church	church	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 held	obl
17	on	on	ADP	_	18 Sunday	case
18	Sunday	Sunday	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 church	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	participle		her cousin's child not said here		the village church on Sunday			vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at church=Location
2	christen			her cousin's child					nom christening «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

Sitting as godmother at a christening for her cousin's son, who had been born in the spring

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sitting	sit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	as	as	ADP	_	3 godmother	case
3	godmother	godmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Sitting	obl
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 christening	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 christening	det
6	christening	christening	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Sitting	obl
7	for	for	ADP	_	11 son	case
8	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 cousin	nmod:poss
9	cousin	cousin	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 son	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 cousin	case
11	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Sitting	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 born	punct
13	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	16 born	nsubj:pass
14	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 born	aux
15	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	16 born	aux:pass
16	born	bear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 son	acl:relcl
17	in	in	ADP	_	19 spring	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 spring	det
19	spring	spring	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 born	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sit	gerund				a christening		as godmother; for her cousin's son	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at christening=Location
2	bear	past · perfect · passive		her cousin's son			spring		vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 4

Helping her cousin with a family matter at the farm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Helping	help	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 matter	csubj
2	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 cousin	nmod:poss
3	cousin	cousin	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Helping	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 family	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 family	det
6	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Helping	obl
7	matter	matter	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	at	at	ADP	_	10 farm	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 farm	det
10	farm	farm	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 matter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	gerund		her cousin				with a family	vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent cousin=Beneficiary with family=Theme
2	matter	present	Helping			the farm			vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

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/1677-pg640-part1/e3/