Exam question 3 · English Fairy Tales, Coo-my-dove, part 1: Johnny-cake is e…

What reason did the queen give for being unable to grant her son's request?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: reason, queen, son · What happens: do, give, be, grant, request · To what, where: request

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1966 «English Fairy Tales, Coo-my-dove, part 1: Johnny-cake is eaten, and the dove flies to the queen» 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	PRON	PronType=Int	3 did	obj
2	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 queen	det
5	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	nsubj
6	give	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 did	ccomp
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	9 unable	mark
8	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 unable	cop
9	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 give	advcl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 grant	mark
11	grant	grant	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 unable	xcomp
12	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 son	nmod:poss
13	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 request	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 son	case
15	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 grant	obj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	past	reason			tree rules
2	give	present	the queen			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
3	is	gerund	the queen not said here		unable property	tree rules
4	grant	to-infinitive	the queen not said here	queen's son's request		vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent request=Theme
5	request		queen's son			nom request «communication 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

her magic could not reach so far

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 magic	nmod:poss
2	magic	magic	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 reach	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 reach	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 reach	advmod
5	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	so	so	ADV	_	7 far	advmod
7	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	5 reach	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not reach	could	her magic					far property	vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

the spaewife had told her not to use magic there

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 spaewife	det
2	spaewife	spaewife	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 told	nsubj:pass
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 told	aux
4	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 told	iobj
6	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 use	advmod
7	to	to	PART	_	8 use	mark
8	use	use	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 told	xcomp
9	magic	magic	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 use	obj
10	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	8 use	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	past · perfect · passive		the spaewife	her = she				tree rules
2	not use not said to happen	to-infinitive	the spaewife not said here	magic		there			vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent magic=Patient

Option 3

her spells were too weak

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 spells	nmod:poss
2	spells	spell	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 weak	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 weak	cop
4	too	too	ADV	_	5 weak	advmod
5	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	her spells					weak property	tree rules
2	spell		her = she						nom spell «state transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

her magic could not reach across the great sea that far

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 magic	nmod:poss
2	magic	magic	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 reach	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 reach	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 reach	advmod
5	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	across	across	ADP	_	9 sea	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sea	det
8	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 sea	amod
9	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 reach	obj
10	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 far	nsubj
11	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	9 sea	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not reach	could	her magic	the great sea					vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent sea=Theme

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/1966-pg7439-part25/e3/