Exam question 4 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Elder-Tree Mother: an elder bu…

Which description best characterises the closing remark of the little boy?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: description · What happens: characteris, close, remark · To what, where: closing remark, little boy

This is exam question 4 of lesson 295 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Elder-Tree Mother: an elder bush grows from a teapot and shows an old couple's golden day» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 description	det
2	description	description	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 characterises	nsubj
3	best	well	ADV	Degree=Sup	2 description	advmod
4	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 remark	det
6	closing	close	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 remark	amod
7	remark	remark	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 characterises	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 boy	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 boy	det
10	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 boy	amod
11	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 remark	nmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	characteris	present	which description	the closing remark of the little boy	tree rules
2	close	gerund			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	remark			the little boy	nom remark «communication transitive»: of=patient

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 admits that the story was a little bit scary and he wants to sleep

The tree, 15 words

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 admits	nsubj
2	admits	admit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 scary	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 story	det
5	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 scary	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 scary	cop
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 bit	det
8	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 bit	amod
9	bit	bit	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 scary	obl:unmarked
10	scary	scary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 admits	advcl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 wants	cc
12	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 wants	nsubj
13	wants	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 admits	conj
14	to	to	PART	_	15 sleep	mark
15	sleep	sleep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 wants	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	admit speech: other	present	He		vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	the story	a little bit obl:unmarked; scary property	tree rules
3	want	present	he		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
4	sleep not said to happen	to-infinitive	he not said here		vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

He insists the account was wholly invented

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 insists	nsubj
2	insists	insist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 account	det
4	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 invented	nsubj:pass
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 invented	aux:pass
6	wholly	wholly	ADV	_	7 invented	advmod
7	invented	invent	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 insists	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	insist speech: other	present	He						vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	invent	past · passive		the account				wholly property	vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result

Option 3

He says it is a fairy tale and asks the old man to tell another one

The tree, 16 words

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 says	nsubj
2	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 tale	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 tale	cop
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 tale	det
6	fairy	fairy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 tale	amod
7	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 says	ccomp
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 asks	cc
9	asks	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 says	conj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 man	det
11	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 man	amod
12	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 asks	obj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 tell	mark
14	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 asks	advcl
15	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	16 one	det
16	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 tell	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	He			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present	it	a fairy tale		tree rules
3	ask speech: ask	present	He not said here		the old man	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent man=Recipient
4	tell speech: assert	to-infinitive	He not said here	another one		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent one=Recipient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He doubts that the account is a fairy tale

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 doubts	nsubj
2	doubts	doubt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 tale	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 account	det
5	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 tale	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 tale	cop
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 tale	det
8	fairy	fairy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 tale	amod
9	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 doubts	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	doubt	present	He						vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present	the account	a fairy tale					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/295-pg1597-part22/e4/