Exam question 1 · Alice in Wonderland, chapter X, part 1: The Lobster Quadri…

Identify the action which the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon describe as constituting a principal step of the Lobster Quadrille.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Mock Turtle · What happens: identify, describe, constitute, step · To what, where: action, principal step, Lobster Quadrille

This is exam question 1 of lesson 19 «Alice in Wonderland, chapter X, part 1: The Lobster Quadrille (a dance, a whiting and a porpoise)» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 action	det
3	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 describe	obj
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Turtle	det
6	Mock	Mock	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Turtle	compound
7	Turtle	Turtle	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 describe	nsubj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 Gryphon	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Gryphon	det
10	Gryphon	Gryphon	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Turtle	conj
11	describe	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 action	acl:relcl
12	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 constituting	mark
13	constituting	constitute	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 describe	advcl
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 step	det
15	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 step	amod
16	step	step	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 constituting	obj
17	of	of	ADP	_	20 Quadrille	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 Quadrille	det
19	Lobster	Lobster	PROPN	Number=Sing	20 Quadrille	compound
20	Quadrille	Quadrille	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 step	nmod
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the action	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent action=Theme
2	describe	present	the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon	the action	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent which=Theme
3	constitute	gerund	the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon not said here	a principal step of the Lobster Quadrille	vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme step=Pivot
4	step			the Lobster Quadrille	nom step «act transitive»: of=patient

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 throwing of the lobsters as far out to sea as possible, and then swimming after them to bring them back

The tree, 21 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 throwing	det
2	throwing	throwing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 lobsters	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 lobsters	det
5	lobsters	lobster	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 throwing	nmod
6	as	as	ADV	_	7 far	advmod
7	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	8 out	advmod
8	out	out	ADV	_	2 throwing	advmod
9	to	to	ADP	_	10 sea	case
10	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 out	obl
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 possible	mark
12	possible	possible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 out	advcl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 swimming	punct
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 swimming	cc
15	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	16 swimming	advmod
16	swimming	swim	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 throwing	conj
17	after	after	ADP	_	18 them	case
18	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 swimming	obl
19	to	to	PART	_	20 bring	mark
20	bring	bring	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 swimming	advcl
21	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 bring	obj
22	back	back	ADV	_	20 bring	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swim	gerund					after lobsters = lobster; then		vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	bring back	to-infinitive		lobsters = lobster					vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent they=Theme

Option 2

The throwing of the lobsters onto the sand, after which the dancers line up in neat rows for the song

The tree, 20 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 throwing	det
2	throwing	throwing	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 line	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 lobsters	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 lobsters	det
5	lobsters	lobster	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 throwing	nmod
6	onto	onto	ADP	_	8 sand	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sand	det
8	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 lobsters	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 line	punct
10	after	after	ADP	_	11 which	case
11	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 line	obl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 dancers	det
13	dancers	dancer	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 line	nsubj
14	line	line	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
15	up	up	ADP	_	14 line	compound:prt
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 rows	case
17	neat	neat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 rows	amod
18	rows	row	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 line	obl
19	for	for	ADP	_	21 song	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 song	det
21	song	song	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 line	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	line up	present	the throwing of the lobsters onto the sand					for the song; in neat rows	vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent in row=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The throwing of the lobsters as far out to sea as possible

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 throwing	det
2	throwing	throwing	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 out	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 lobsters	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 lobsters	det
5	lobsters	lobster	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 throwing	nmod
6	as	as	ADV	_	7 far	advmod
7	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	8 out	advmod
8	out	out	ADV	_	root	root
9	to	to	ADP	_	10 sea	case
10	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 out	obl
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 possible	mark
12	possible	possible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 out	advcl

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

The dancing of the two lines

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dancing	det
2	dancing	dancing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 lines	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 lines	det
5	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 lines	nummod
6	lines	line	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 dancing	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dance			the two lines					nom dancing «act transitive»: of=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/19-alice-the-lobster-quadrille-1/e1/