Exam question 2 · The Wind in the Willows, chapter II, part 4: The Open Road…

Ascertain the demeanour of Toad in the moments following the disaster.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, moments · What happens: ascertain, follow · To what, where: demeanour, disaster

This is exam question 2 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 demeanour	det
3	demeanour	demeanour	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 Toad	case
5	Toad	Toad	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 demeanour	nmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 moments	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 moments	det
8	moments	moment	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Ascertain	obl
9	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 moments	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 disaster	det
11	disaster	disaster	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 following	obj
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the demeanour of Toad			moment		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent demeanour=Topic
2	follow	gerund	the moments not said here	the disaster					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent disaster=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

Furious and shouting at the Mole

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Furious	furious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 shouting	cc
3	shouting	shout	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Furious	conj
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 Mole	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Mole	det
6	Mole	mole	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 shouting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shout speech: express	gerund				the Mole			vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Shocked and frightened, hiding his face in his hands and sobbing for a long time

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shocked	shocked	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 hiding	amod
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 frightened	cc
3	frightened	frightened	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Shocked	conj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 hiding	punct
5	hiding	hide	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 face	nmod:poss
7	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hiding	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 hands	case
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 hands	nmod:poss
10	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 hiding	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 sobbing	cc
12	sobbing	sob	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 hiding	conj
13	for	for	ADP	_	16 time	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 time	det
15	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 time	amod
16	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 sobbing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	gerund		his face		his hands			vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent face=Patient in hand=Location
2	sob	gerund					time		vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A happy trance, murmuring «Poop-poop!»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 trance	det
2	happy	happy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 trance	amod
3	trance	trance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 murmuring	punct
5	murmuring	murmur	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 trance	acl
6	«	«	PUNCT	_	9 poop	punct
7	Poop	poop	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 poop	compound
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 Poop	punct
9	poop	poop	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 murmuring	obj
10	!	!	PUNCT	_	9 poop	punct
11	»	»	PUNCT	_	9 poop	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	murmur speech: other	gerund	a happy trance not said here	Poop poop					vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poop=Topic

Option 4

A happy trance, murmuring «Poop-poop!», while he sits in the middle of the road alone

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 trance	det
2	happy	happy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 trance	amod
3	trance	trance	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 sits	nsubj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 murmuring	punct
5	murmuring	murmur	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 trance	acl
6	«	«	PUNCT	_	9 poop	punct
7	Poop	poop	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 poop	compound
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 Poop	punct
9	poop	poop	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 murmuring	obj
10	!	!	PUNCT	_	9 poop	punct
11	»	»	PUNCT	_	9 poop	punct
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 sits	punct
13	while	while	SCONJ	_	15 sits	mark
14	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 sits	nsubj
15	sits	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 middle	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 middle	det
18	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 sits	obl
19	of	of	ADP	_	21 road	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 road	det
21	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 middle	nmod
22	alone	alone	ADV	_	15 sits	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	murmur speech: other	gerund	a happy trance not said here	Poop poop					vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poop=Topic
2	sit	present	a happy trance			the middle of the road		alone property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in middle=Location

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/e2/