Exam question 4 · Andersen's Tales, Thumbelina, part 65: Thumbelina finds a…

Which of the following best explains Thumbelina's behaviour toward the dead swallow?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, explain · To what, where: behaviour · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1741 «Andersen's Tales, Thumbelina, part 65: Thumbelina finds a frozen swallow and nurses him back to life» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 explains	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 explains	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 explains	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 explains	csubj
5	best	well	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 following	advmod
6	explains	explain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	Thumbelina	Thumbelina	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 behaviour	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 Thumbelina	case
9	behaviour	behaviour	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 explains	obj
10	toward	toward	ADP	_	13 swallow	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 swallow	det
12	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 swallow	amod
13	swallow	swallow	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 explains	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 explains	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund						well property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	explain speech: assert	present		Thumbelina's behaviour				toward the dead swallow	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent behaviour=Topic

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

She fed him water and found food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 fed	nsubj
2	fed	feed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 fed	obj
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fed	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 found	cc
6	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 fed	conj
7	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 found	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feed	past	She	water	him = he				vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient water=Theme
2	find	past	She not said here	food					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Topic

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

She covered him with down and warmed him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 covered	nsubj
2	covered	cover	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 covered	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	5 down	case
5	down	down	ADV	_	2 covered	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 warmed	cc
7	warmed	warm	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 covered	conj
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 warmed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cover	past	She		him = he				vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Destination with down=Theme
2	warm	past	She not said here	him = he					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 3

She sang to him and let him rest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sang	nsubj
2	sang	sing	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 him	case
4	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sang	obl
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 let	cc
6	let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 sang	conj
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 let	obj
8	rest	rest	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 let	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	sing speech: express	past	She		him = he	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient
2	let	infinitive	She not said here	him = he		tree rules
3	rest	infinitive	him = he not said here			vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

She carried him to her own bed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 carried	nsubj
2	carried	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 carried	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 bed	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 bed	nmod:poss
6	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 bed	amod
7	bed	bed	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 carried	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	past	She	him = he		her own bed			vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme to bed=Destination

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/1741-pg640-part65/e4/