Exam question 2 · Andersen, Thumbelina, part 1: a tiny girl grows from a flo…

By what means did the fishes free Thumbelina from the toad's intention?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: toad · What happens: mean, do, intend · To what, where: fishes, intention

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1740 «Andersen, Thumbelina, part 1: a tiny girl grows from a flower and a toad tries to steal her» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 did	obj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 fishes	det
6	fishes	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 did	obj
7	free	free	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 Thumbelina	amod
8	Thumbelina	Thumbelina	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 fishes	appos
9	from	from	ADP	_	13 intention	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 toad	det
11	toad	toad	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 intention	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 toad	case
13	intention	intention	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	do	past		the fishes	the toad's intention	tree rules
3	intend		the toad			nom intention «cognition 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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

By nibbling the stem in two

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 nibbling	mark
2	nibbling	nibble	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 stem	det
4	stem	stem	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 nibbling	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 two	case
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 nibbling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	nibble	gerund		the stem		two			vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stem=Patient

Option 2

By nibbling the stem in two so the toad could not reach her

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 nibbling	mark
2	nibbling	nibble	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 stem	det
4	stem	stem	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 nibbling	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 two	case
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 stem	nmod
7	so	so	SCONJ	_	12 reach	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 toad	det
9	toad	toad	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 reach	nsubj
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 reach	aux
11	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 reach	advmod
12	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 nibbling	advcl
13	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 reach	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	nibble	gerund		the stem		two			vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stem=Patient
2	not reach	could	the toad	her = she					vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent she=Theme

Option 3

By cutting the leaf apart

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 cutting	mark
2	cutting	cut	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 leaf	det
4	leaf	leaf	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cutting	obj
5	apart	apart	ADV	_	2 cutting	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut	gerund		the leaf				apart property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset leaf=Product

Option 4

By nibbling the stem in two until the leaf fell into the water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 nibbling	mark
2	nibbling	nibble	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 fell	advcl
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 stem	det
4	stem	stem	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 nibbling	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 two	case
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 nibbling	obl
7	until	until	SCONJ	_	10 fell	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 leaf	det
9	leaf	leaf	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 fell	nsubj
10	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	into	into	ADP	_	13 water	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 water	det
13	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 fell	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	nibble	gerund	the leaf not said here	the stem		two			vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stem=Patient
2	fall	past	the leaf					into the water result	vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into water=Result

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/1740-pg640-part64/e2/