Exam question 1 · Alice in Wonderland, chapter X, part 2: The Lobster Quadri…

Identify the reason adduced by Alice for declining to narrate the events of the preceding day.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, adduce, decline, not narrate, precede · To what, where: reason, events

This is exam question 1 of lesson 20 «Alice in Wonderland, chapter X, part 2: The Lobster Quadrille (poems gone wrong and Beautiful Soup)» 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 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	adduced	adduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 Alice	case
6	Alice	Alice	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 adduced	obl
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	8 declining	mark
8	declining	decline	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 adduced	advcl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 narrate	mark
10	narrate	narrate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 declining	xcomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 events	det
12	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 narrate	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 day	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 day	det
15	preceding	precede	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	16 day	amod
16	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 events	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	adduce	participle		the reason not said here	by Alice	tree rules
3	decline	gerund				vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
4	not narrate speech: other	to-infinitive		the events of the preceding day		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent event=Topic
5	precede	gerund				vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme

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

That the events of the preceding day were too long to narrate, and that she had been sleeping at the time of them

The tree, 23 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 the	nsubj
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 events	det
3	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 long	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 day	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 day	det
6	preceding	precede	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 day	amod
7	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 events	nmod
8	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 long	cop
9	too	too	ADV	_	10 long	advmod
10	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
11	to	to	PART	_	12 narrate	mark
12	narrate	narrate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 long	xcomp
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 sleeping	punct
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 sleeping	cc
15	that	that	SCONJ	_	19 sleeping	mark
16	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 sleeping	nsubj
17	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 sleeping	aux
18	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	19 sleeping	aux
19	sleeping	sleep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 long	parataxis
20	at	at	ADP	_	22 time	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 time	det
22	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 sleeping	obl
23	of	of	ADP	_	24 them	case
24	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 time	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	precede	gerund				vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme
2	is	past	the events of the preceding day		long property	tree rules
3	narrate speech: other not said to happen	to-infinitive	the events of the preceding day not said here			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	sleep	past · perfect · progressive	she	time		vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

That she had been a different person then, since the Queen had ordered her about and she had since grown very much

The tree, 22 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	7 person	nsubj
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 person	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 person	aux
4	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	7 person	cop
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 person	det
6	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 person	amod
7	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 person	advmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 ordered	punct
10	since	since	SCONJ	_	14 ordered	mark
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 Queen	det
12	Queen	Queen	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 ordered	nsubj
13	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 ordered	aux
14	ordered	order	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	7 person	parataxis
15	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 ordered	obj
16	about	about	ADV	_	14 ordered	advmod
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 grown	cc
18	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 grown	nsubj
19	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	21 grown	aux
20	since	since	ADV	_	21 grown	advmod
21	grown	grow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	14 ordered	conj
22	very	very	ADV	_	23 much	advmod
23	much	much	ADV	_	21 grown	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past · perfect	That	a different person		then		tree rules
2	order	past · perfect	the Queen		person		about property	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme
3	grow	past · perfect	Queen				since property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

That she had then been a different person

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 been	nsubj
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 been	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 been	aux
4	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	5 been	advmod
5	been	be	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 person	det
7	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 person	amod
8	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 been	nsubj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	past · perfect	That				then		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

That she had then been someone else entirely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 had	nsubj
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 had	nsubj
3	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	6 someone	advmod
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 someone	cop
6	someone	someone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	3 had	obj
7	else	else	ADV	_	6 someone	advmod
8	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	3 had	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	That					entirely property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is a	participle		someone			then	else property	tree rules

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.

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