Exam question 1 · The Wind in the Willows, chapter II, part 4: The Open Road…

Identify the immediate cause of the overturning of the canary-coloured cart.

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

This is exam question 1 of lesson 32 «The Wind in the Willows, chapter II, part 4: The Open Road (the wreck of the cart, and Toad's new craze)» 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	4 cause	det
3	immediate	immediate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	7 overturning	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 overturning	det
7	overturning	overturn	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 cause	acl
8	of	of	ADP	_	13 cart	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 cart	det
10	canary	canary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 coloured	amod
11	-	-	PUNCT	_	10 canary	punct
12	coloured	coloured	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 cart	amod
13	cart	cart	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 overturning	obl
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the immediate cause					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	overturn	gerund	the immediate cause not said here					of the coloured cart	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

The horse ran off in fright

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 horse	det
2	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ran	nsubj
3	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	off	off	ADP	_	3 ran	compound:prt
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 fright	case
6	fright	fright	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ran	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run off	past	the horse			fright			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in fright=Trajectory

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The terror of the horse occasioned by the passing motor-car

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 terror	det
2	terror	terror	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 horse	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 horse	det
5	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 terror	nmod
6	occasioned	occasion	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 terror	acl
7	by	by	ADP	_	12 car	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 car	det
9	passing	pass	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 car	amod
10	motor	motor	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 car	compound
11	-	-	PUNCT	_	10 motor	punct
12	car	car	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 occasioned	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occasion	participle		the terror of the horse not said here					tree rules
2	pass	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The cart's wheel hit a deep stone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cart	det
2	cart	cart	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wheel	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 cart	case
4	wheel	wheel	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hit	nsubj
5	hit	hit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 stone	det
7	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 stone	amod
8	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hit	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hit	past	the cart's wheel	a deep stone					vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme stone=Co-Theme

Option 4

A loose wheel

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 wheel	det
2	loose	loose	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 wheel	amod
3	wheel	wheel	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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/32-willows-ch2-part4-the-wreck-and-the-new-craze/e1/