Test 12 · ★ · Russian Fairy Tales, Frost, part 49: the stepmother's daug…

Could the girls have saved themselves if they'd been nicer?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: girls · What happens: save, be · To what, where: girls

This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 457 «Russian Fairy Tales, Frost, part 49: the stepmother's daughters freeze in the forest» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 saved	aux
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 girls	det
3	girls	girl	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 saved	nsubj:pass
4	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 saved	aux
5	saved	save	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	5 saved	obj
7	if	if	SCONJ	_	11 nicer	mark
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 nicer	nsubj
9	'd	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 nicer	aux
10	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	11 nicer	cop
11	nicer	nice	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 saved	advcl
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 saved	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	save	could · perfect · passive		the girls					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary themselves=Theme
2	is a condition, not said to happen	past · perfect	girls = girl					nice property	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

Probably, since Frost likes kind answers and gentle words from people he meets in the woods

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Probably	probably	ADV	_	5 likes	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Probably	punct
3	since	since	ADP	_	4 Frost	case
4	Frost	frost	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 likes	obl
5	likes	like	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	kind	kind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 answers	amod
7	answers	answer	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 likes	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 words	cc
9	gentle	gentle	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 words	amod
10	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 answers	conj
11	from	from	ADP	_	12 people	case
12	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 words	nmod
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 meets	nsubj
14	meets	meet	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 people	acl:relcl
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 woods	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 woods	det
17	woods	wood	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 meets	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	like	present		kind answers and gentle words from people			since Frost	probably property	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot answer=Theme
2	meet	present	he	people not said here		the woods			vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=Co-Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Probably, since Frost likes kind answers, but the girls were way too proud to try at all

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Probably	probably	ADV	_	5 likes	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Probably	punct
3	since	since	ADP	_	4 Frost	case
4	Frost	frost	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 likes	obl
5	likes	like	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	kind	kind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 answers	amod
7	answers	answer	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 likes	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 way	punct
9	but	but	CCONJ	_	13 way	cc
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 girls	det
11	girls	girl	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 way	nsubj
12	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 way	cop
13	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 likes	obl
14	too	too	ADV	_	15 proud	advmod
15	proud	proud	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 way	amod
16	to	to	PART	_	17 try	mark
17	try	try	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 proud	xcomp
18	at	at	ADP	_	19 all	case
19	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	17 try	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	like	present		kind answers		since Frost	probably property	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot answer=Theme
2	is a	past	the girls	way				tree rules
3	try	to-infinitive	the girls not said here		all			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3

Probably, since Frost likes nice folks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Probably	probably	ADV	_	5 likes	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Probably	punct
3	since	since	ADP	_	4 Frost	case
4	Frost	frost	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 likes	obl
5	likes	like	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	nice	nice	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 folks	amod
7	folks	folk	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 likes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	like	present		nice folks			since Frost	probably property	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot folk=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Probably, since Frost likes kind answers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Probably	probably	ADV	_	5 likes	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Probably	punct
3	since	since	ADP	_	4 Frost	case
4	Frost	frost	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 likes	obl
5	likes	like	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	kind	kind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 answers	amod
7	answers	answer	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 likes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	like	present		kind answers			since Frost	probably property	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot answer=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/457-pg22373-part49/t12/