Test 5 · ★★★ · The Wind in the Willows, chapter IV, part 2: Mr. Badger (b…

«Me and little Billy here, we was trying to find our way to school.» How would a school book say it?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: we, school book · What happens: try, find, say · To what, where: way · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 5 · ★★★ of lesson 38 «The Wind in the Willows, chapter IV, part 2: Mr. Badger (bad news of Toad, a winter promise, and two lost hedgehogs)» of the books course of Mova's primary school. 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

Sentence 1: «Me and little Billy here, we was trying to find our way to school.»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	2 Me	punct
2	Me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 Billy	cc
4	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 Billy	amod
5	Billy	Billy	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 Me	conj
6	here	here	ADV	PronType=Dem	5 Billy	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 trying	punct
8	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	10 trying	nsubj
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 trying	aux
10	trying	try	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 Me	parataxis
11	to	to	PART	_	12 find	mark
12	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 trying	xcomp
13	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 way	nmod:poss
14	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 find	obj
15	to	to	ADP	_	16 school	case
16	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 find	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	10 trying	punct
18	»	»	PUNCT	_	2 Me	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	try in a quote	past · progressive	we						vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	find not said to happen, in a quote	to-infinitive	we not said here	our way				to school	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Topic

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.

Sentence 2: How would a school book say it?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	6 say	advmod
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 say	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 book	det
4	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 book	compound
5	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 say	nsubj
6	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 say	obj
8	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 say	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	would	a school book	way					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic

The options

Option 1

Billy and I were trying very hard to find our way back to school through the deep snow

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Billy	Billy	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 trying	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 I	cc
3	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Billy	conj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 trying	aux
5	trying	try	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	very	very	ADV	_	7 hard	advmod
7	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 trying	xcomp
8	to	to	PART	_	9 find	mark
9	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 trying	xcomp
10	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 way	nmod:poss
11	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 find	obj
12	back	back	ADV	_	9 find	advmod
13	to	to	ADP	_	14 school	case
14	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 back	obl
15	through	through	ADP	_	18 snow	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 snow	det
17	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 snow	amod
18	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 find	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	try	past · progressive	Billy					hard property	vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	find not said to happen	to-infinitive	Billy not said here	our way		the deep snow			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Topic

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Billy and I had been trying all morning to find our way to school in the snow and cold

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Billy	Billy	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 trying	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 I	cc
3	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Billy	conj
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 trying	aux
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 trying	aux
6	trying	try	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
7	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	8 morning	det
8	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 trying	obl:unmarked
9	to	to	PART	_	10 find	mark
10	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 trying	xcomp
11	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 way	nmod:poss
12	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 find	obj
13	to	to	ADP	_	14 school	case
14	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 find	obl
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 snow	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 snow	det
17	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 find	obl
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 cold	cc
19	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 snow	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	try	past · perfect · progressive	Billy				morning		vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	find not said to happen	to-infinitive	Billy not said here	our way		the snow		to school	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Topic

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Billy and I were trying to find our way to school

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Billy	Billy	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 trying	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 I	cc
3	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Billy	conj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 trying	aux
5	trying	try	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 find	mark
7	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 trying	xcomp
8	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 way	nmod:poss
9	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 find	obj
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 school	case
11	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 find	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	try	past · progressive	Billy						vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	find not said to happen	to-infinitive	Billy not said here	our way				to school	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Topic

Option 4

Billy and me were looking for the school road

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Billy	Billy	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 looking	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 me	cc
3	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Billy	conj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 looking	aux
5	looking	look	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	9 road	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 road	det
8	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 road	compound
9	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 looking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	past · progressive	Billy					for the school road	vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for road=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/38-willows-ch4-part2-toad-news-and-hedgehogs/t5/