Exam question 4 · English Fairy Tales, Scrapefoot, part 15: pixies eat a cow…

Explain why Scrapefoot found the little chair the most comfortable of the three.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Scrapefoot · What happens: explain, find · To what, where: little chair · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 248 «English Fairy Tales, Scrapefoot, part 15: pixies eat a cow, a blinded giant, and a fox sneaks into the bears' castle» 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	Explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 found	advmod
3	Scrapefoot	Scrapefoot	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 found	nsubj
4	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Explain	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 chair	det
6	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 chair	amod
7	chair	chair	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 found	obj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 comfortable	det
9	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	10 comfortable	advmod
10	comfortable	comfortable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 found	advcl
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 three	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 three	det
13	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 comfortable	obl
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	imperative	you not said here						vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	find	past	Scrapefoot	the little chair					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chair=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

It was big and cosy, and it fit him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 big	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 big	cop
3	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 cosy	cc
5	cosy	cosy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 big	conj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 fit	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 fit	cc
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 fit	nsubj
9	fit	fit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 big	conj
10	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 fit	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	It		big property	tree rules
2	be					tree rules
3	fit	past	it	him = he		vn adjust-26.9 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 2

It was the largest and softest of the three, and it suited his small size perfectly well

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 largest	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 largest	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 largest	det
4	largest	large	ADJ	Degree=Sup	13 suited	nsubj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 softest	cc
6	softest	soft	ADJ	Degree=Sup	4 largest	conj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 three	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 three	det
9	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 softest	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 suited	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 suited	cc
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 suited	nsubj
13	suited	suit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 size	nmod:poss
15	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 size	amod
16	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 suited	obj
17	perfectly	perfectly	ADV	_	13 suited	advmod
18	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	17 perfectly	fixed

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	It		large property	tree rules
2	be				of the three	tree rules
3	suit	past	the largest	his small size	perfectly property	tree rules

Option 3

It was soft and warm, and it suited his small size better than the others

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 soft	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 soft	cop
3	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 warm	cc
5	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 soft	conj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 suited	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 suited	cc
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 suited	nsubj
9	suited	suit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 soft	conj
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 size	nmod:poss
11	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 size	amod
12	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 suited	obj
13	better	well	ADV	Degree=Cmp	9 suited	advmod
14	than	than	ADP	_	16 others	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 others	det
16	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 better	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	It		soft property	tree rules
2	be					tree rules
3	suit	past	it	his small size	well property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It was soft and warm, and it suited his small size

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 soft	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 soft	cop
3	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 warm	cc
5	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 soft	conj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 suited	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 suited	cc
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 suited	nsubj
9	suited	suit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 soft	conj
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 size	nmod:poss
11	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 size	amod
12	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 suited	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	It		soft property	tree rules
2	be					tree rules
3	suit	past	it	his small size		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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