Exam question 4 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Tinder-Box, part 61: a Soldier…

Explain the principal reason the Soldier gave for ceasing to carry the copper and silver in his possession.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, Soldier · What happens: explain, give, cease, carry, possess · To what, where: principal reason, copper, possession

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1737 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Tinder-Box, part 61: a Soldier gets rich from three dogs and a witch's trick» 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	Explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Explain	obj
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Soldier	det
6	Soldier	Soldier	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 gave	nsubj
7	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
8	for	for	SCONJ	_	9 ceasing	mark
9	ceasing	cease	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 gave	advcl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 carry	mark
11	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 ceasing	xcomp
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 copper	det
13	copper	copper	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 carry	obj
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 silver	cc
15	silver	silver	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 copper	conj
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 possession	case
17	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 possession	nmod:poss
18	possession	possession	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 carry	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	give	past	the Soldier	the principal reason not said here		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
3	cease	gerund	the Soldier not said here			vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
4	carry	to-infinitive	the Soldier not said here	the copper and silver	Soldier's possession	vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent copper=Value in possession=Location
5	possess		Soldier			nom possession «act 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

He wanted more room.

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 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 room	amod
4	room	room	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 wanted	obj
5	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 wanted	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	He	more room					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot room=Theme

Option 2

He found the gold heavier and more useful to him.

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 found	nsubj
2	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 gold	det
4	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 found	obj
5	heavier	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 found	xcomp
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 useful	cc
7	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	8 useful	advmod
8	useful	useful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 heavier	conj
9	to	to	ADP	_	10 him	case
10	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 useful	obl
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 found	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	find	past	He	the gold				heavy property	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gold=Topic

Option 3

He swapped them for gold because it was shinier.

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 swapped	nsubj
2	swapped	swap	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 swapped	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 gold	case
5	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 swapped	obl
6	because	because	SCONJ	_	9 shinier	mark
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 shinier	nsubj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 shinier	cop
9	shinier	shiny	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 swapped	advcl
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 swapped	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swap	past	He	them = they				for gold	vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent they=Theme for gold=Co-Theme
2	is	past	gold					shiny property	tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

He exchanged them for gold, which is of greater value and fills his pockets more richly.

The tree, 16 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 exchanged	nsubj
2	exchanged	exchange	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 exchanged	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 gold	case
5	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exchanged	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 value	punct
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 value	nsubj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 value	cop
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 value	case
10	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	11 value	amod
11	value	value	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 gold	conj
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 fills	cc
13	fills	fill	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 exchanged	conj
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 pockets	nmod:poss
15	pockets	pocket	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 fills	obj
16	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	17 richly	advmod
17	richly	richly	ADV	_	13 fills	advmod
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 exchanged	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	exchange	past	He	them = they	for gold and greater value	vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent they=Theme for gold=Co-Theme
2	is	present	gold and greater value		of greater value	tree rules
3	fill	present	He not said here	his pockets	richly property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent pocket=Patient

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/1737-pg640-part61/e4/