Exam question 1 · The Wind in the Willows, chapter II, part 1: The Open Road…

Identify the subject of the composition entitled «Ducks' Ditty».

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, subject · What happens: identify, entitle · To what, where: Ditty

This is exam question 1 of lesson 29 «The Wind in the Willows, chapter II, part 1: The Open Road (the Ducks' Ditty, and a visit to Toad Hall)» 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 subject	det
3	subject	subject	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 entitled	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 composition	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 composition	det
6	composition	composition	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 subject	nmod
7	entitled	entitle	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	parataxis
8	«	«	PUNCT	_	11 Ditty	punct
9	Ducks	duck	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 Ditty	nmod:poss
10	'	's	PART	_	9 Ducks	case
11	Ditty	ditty	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 entitled	obj
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 Ditty	punct
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here						vn empathize-88.2 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	entitle	past	the subject of the composition	Ducks's Ditty					tree rules

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

Ducks dabbling in the backwater at noon, with their tails up in the reeds

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ducks	duck	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 dabbling	nsubj
2	dabbling	dabble	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 backwater	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 backwater	det
5	backwater	backwater	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dabbling	obl
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 noon	case
7	noon	noon	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dabbling	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 tails	punct
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 tails	case
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 tails	nmod:poss
11	tails	tail	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 dabbling	obl
12	up	up	ADV	_	11 tails	advmod
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 reeds	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 reeds	det
15	reeds	reed	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 tails	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dabble	gerund	Ducks			the backwater	noon	with Ducks's tails in the reeds	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Ducks dabbling in the backwater

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ducks	duck	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	dabbling	dabble	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Ducks	acl
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 backwater	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 backwater	det
5	backwater	backwater	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dabbling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dabble	gerund	Ducks not said here			the backwater			tree rules

Option 3

Herons fishing in the reeds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Herons	heron	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 fishing	compound
2	fishing	fishing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 reeds	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reeds	det
5	reeds	reed	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 fishing	nmod

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

Option 4

Swans gliding on the lake

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Swans	swan	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	gliding	glide	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Swans	acl
3	on	on	ADP	_	5 lake	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 lake	det
5	lake	lake	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 gliding	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	glide	gerund	Swans not said here			the lake			vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on lake=Trajectory

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/29-willows-ch2-part1-ducks-ditty-and-toad-hall/e1/