Exam question 3 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 1: the mirror…

What circumstance prevented the children's families from possessing a large garden?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: circumstance · What happens: prevent, possess · To what, where: families, large garden

This is exam question 3 of lesson 287 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 1: the mirror shatters and a splinter sticks in Kay» 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 circumstance	det
2	circumstance	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 prevented	nsubj
3	prevented	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 children	det
5	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 families	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 children	case
7	families	family	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 prevented	obj
8	from	from	SCONJ	_	9 possessing	mark
9	possessing	possess	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 prevented	advcl
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 garden	det
11	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 garden	amod
12	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 possessing	obj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 prevented	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	past	what circumstance	the children's families					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer family=Theme
2	possess	gerund	what circumstance not said here	a large garden					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot garden=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

The vast number of towns and roads

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 number	det
2	vast	vast	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 number	amod
3	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 towns	case
5	towns	town	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 number	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 roads	cc
7	roads	road	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 towns	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

The great number of houses and people packed into the narrow town

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 number	det
2	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 number	amod
3	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 houses	case
5	houses	house	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 number	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 people	cc
7	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 houses	conj
8	packed	pack	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 houses	acl
9	into	into	ADP	_	12 town	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 town	det
11	narrow	narrow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 town	amod
12	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 packed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pack	participle		houses and people not said here		the narrow town			vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme into town=Destination

Option 3

The great number of houses and people that filled every corner of the crowded town

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 number	det
2	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 number	amod
3	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 filled	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 houses	case
5	houses	house	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 number	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 people	cc
7	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 houses	conj
8	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 filled	nsubj
9	filled	fill	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	11 corner	det
11	corner	corner	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 filled	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 town	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 town	det
14	crowded	crowded	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 town	amod
15	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 corner	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fill	past	the great number of houses and people	every corner of the crowded town					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent corner=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The great number of houses and people

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 number	det
2	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 number	amod
3	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 houses	case
5	houses	house	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 number	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 people	cc
7	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 houses	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/287-pg1597-part14/e3/