Exam question 3 · Old Tales, Whittington and His Cat, part 27: Dick's cat wi…

What reason does Dick give for requesting that the cat be returned to him after the voyage?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: reason · What happens: give, request, return · To what, where: cat, Dick

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1968 «Old Tales, Whittington and His Cat, part 27: Dick's cat wins his place at court across the sea» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 reason	det
2	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 give	nsubj:outer
3	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 give	aux
4	Dick	Dick	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 give	nsubj
5	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	for	for	SCONJ	_	7 requesting	mark
7	requesting	request	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 give	advcl
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	12 returned	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 cat	det
10	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 returned	nsubj
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 returned	aux:pass
12	returned	return	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 requesting	advcl
13	to	to	ADP	_	14 him	case
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 returned	obl
15	after	after	ADP	_	17 voyage	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 voyage	det
17	voyage	voyage	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 returned	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 give	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	roles by
1	give	present · do-support	what reason				vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	request	gerund	what reason not said here				vn beg-58.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent
3	return	infinitive · passive		the cat	Dick	after the voyage	vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to he=Destination

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 rats and mice would keep him awake all night, and he had grown fond of the animal during the long voyage

The tree, 22 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rats	det
2	rats	rat	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 keep	nsubj
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 mice	cc
4	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 rats	conj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 keep	aux
6	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 keep	obj
8	awake	awake	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 keep	xcomp
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	10 night	det
10	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 keep	obl:unmarked
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 grown	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 grown	cc
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 grown	nsubj
14	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 grown	aux
15	grown	grow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 keep	parataxis
16	fond	fond	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 grown	xcomp
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 animal	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 animal	det
19	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 fond	obl
20	during	during	ADP	_	23 voyage	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 voyage	det
22	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 voyage	amod
23	voyage	voyage	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 grown	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	would	the rats and mice	him = he			night	awake property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
2	grow	past · perfect	he				during the long voyage	fond property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Without the cat the rats would keep him awake all night and he would have no one to warm his bed on the cold garret floor

The tree, 26 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Without	without	ADP	_	3 cat	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 cat	det
3	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 keep	obl
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 rats	det
5	rats	rat	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 keep	nsubj
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 keep	aux
7	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 keep	obj
9	awake	awake	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 keep	xcomp
10	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	11 night	det
11	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 keep	obl:unmarked
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 have	cc
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 have	nsubj
14	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 have	aux
15	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 keep	conj
16	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	17 one	det
17	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 have	obj
18	to	to	PART	_	19 warm	mark
19	warm	warm	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 have	xcomp
20	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 bed	nmod:poss
21	bed	bed	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 warm	obj
22	on	on	ADP	_	26 floor	case
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 floor	det
24	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	26 floor	amod
25	garret	garret	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 floor	compound
26	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 warm	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	would	the rats	cat		night	without the cat; awake property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
2	have	would	cat	no one				tree rules
3	warm	to-infinitive	no one not said here	cat's bed	the cold garret floor			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent bed=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The rats and mice would keep him awake all night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rats	det
2	rats	rat	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 keep	nsubj
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 mice	cc
4	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 rats	conj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 keep	aux
6	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 keep	obj
8	awake	awake	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 keep	xcomp
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	10 night	det
10	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 keep	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	would	the rats and mice	him = he			night	awake property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme

Option 4

He had nobody else to talk to in the house

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 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 had	obj
4	else	else	ADV	_	3 nobody	advmod
5	to	to	PART	_	6 talk	mark
6	talk	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 had	advcl
7	to	to	ADP	_	6 talk	obl
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 house	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 house	det
10	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 talk	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	He	nobody					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nobody=Patient
2	talk	to-infinitive	He not said here			the house			vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/1968-pg7439-part27/e3/