Exam question 3 · English Fairy Tales, The Pedlar of Swaffham: a poor pedlar…

In what manner does the narrative characterise the pedlar's response to the shopkeeper's account of his dream?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: shopkeeper, his · What happens: do, characterise, account, dream · To what, where: narrative, manner, dream

This is exam question 3 of lesson 249 «English Fairy Tales, The Pedlar of Swaffham: a poor pedlar dreams of London Bridge and finds a treasure at home» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 does	obl
4	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 narrative	det
6	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 does	obj
7	characterise	characterise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 does	xcomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 pedlar	det
9	pedlar	pedlar	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 response	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 pedlar	case
11	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 does	parataxis
12	to	to	ADP	_	16 account	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 shopkeeper	det
14	shopkeeper	shopkeeper	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 account	nmod:poss
15	's	's	PART	_	14 shopkeeper	case
16	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 response	nmod
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 dream	case
18	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 dream	nmod:poss
19	dream	dream	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 account	nmod
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	do	present		the narrative	what manner	tree rules
2	characterise	present				tree rules
3	account		the shopkeeper	his dream		nom account «communication transitive»: poss=agent of=patient
4	dream		his = he			nom dream «cognition 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

He laughed loudly

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 laughed	nsubj
2	laughed	laugh	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	2 laughed	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	laugh	past	He					loudly property	vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

He argued back and was publicly furious

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 argued	nsubj
2	argued	argue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	back	back	ADV	_	2 argued	advmod
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 furious	cc
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 furious	cop
6	publicly	publicly	ADV	_	7 furious	advmod
7	furious	furious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 argued	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	argue back speech: disagree	past	He						vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	He not said here					furious, publicly property	tree rules

Option 3

He refused to believe it and left in anger

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 refused	nsubj
2	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 believe	mark
4	believe	believe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 refused	xcomp
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 believe	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 left	cc
7	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 refused	conj
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 anger	case
9	anger	anger	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 left	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	refuse	past	He			vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not believe	to-infinitive	He not said here	it		vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus
3	leave	participle	He not said here		in anger result	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in anger=Result

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He remained silent and was privately overjoyed

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 remained	nsubj
2	remained	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 remained	xcomp
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 overjoyed	cc
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 overjoyed	aux:pass
6	privately	privately	ADV	_	7 overjoyed	advmod
7	overjoyed	overjoy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 remained	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	past	He					silent property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	overjoy	past · passive	He not said here					privately 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/249-pg14241-part16/e3/