Exam question 1 · Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 16: Gerda in the old wom…

Which of the following best describes the principal action of the old woman in this part of the text?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: old woman · What happens: follow, describe, act · To what, where: principal action

This is exam question 1 of lesson 289 «Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 16: Gerda in the old woman's garden asks the flowers about 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 describes	obj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 best	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 best	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 best	case
5	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 describes	nmod
6	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 action	det
8	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 action	amod
9	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 describes	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	13 woman	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 woman	det
12	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 woman	amod
13	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 action	nmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 part	case
15	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	16 part	det
16	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 woman	nmod
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 text	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 text	det
19	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 part	nmod
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present		the principal action of the old woman in this part of the text	of the best	tree rules
3	act		the old woman in this part of the text			nom action «act intransitive»: of=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

She watered the roses

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 watered	nsubj
2	watered	water	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 roses	det
4	roses	rose	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 watered	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	water	past	She	the roses					vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent rose=Destination

Option 2

She fled the garden

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 fled	nsubj
2	fled	flee	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 garden	det
4	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fled	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flee	past	She	the garden					vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme garden=Initial_Location

Option 3

She buried the roses to rest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 buried	nsubj
2	buried	bury	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 roses	det
4	roses	rose	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 buried	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 rest	mark
6	rest	rest	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 buried	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bury	past	She	the roses					vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rose=Theme
2	rest	to-infinitive	She not said here						vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

She enchanted the garden so as to detain Gerda

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 enchanted	nsubj
2	enchanted	enchant	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 garden	det
4	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 enchanted	obj
5	so	so	ADV	_	8 detain	advmod
6	as	as	SCONJ	_	8 detain	mark
7	to	to	PART	_	8 detain	mark
8	detain	detain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 enchanted	advcl
9	Gerda	Gerda	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 detain	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enchant	past	She	the garden					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus garden=Experiencer
2	detain	to-infinitive	She not said here	Gerda					vn confine-92 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gerda=Theme

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/289-pg1597-part16/e1/