Exam question 4 · Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 1: The driest thing…

Select the response most accurately characterising the Dodo's determination upon the conclusion of the race.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Dodo · What happens: select, characteris, determine, conclude · To what, where: response, determination, race

This is exam question 4 of lesson 5 «Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 1: The driest thing and the Caucus-race» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 accurately	advmod
5	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	1 Select	advmod
6	characterising	characteris	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Select	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Dodo	det
8	Dodo	Dodo	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 determination	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 Dodo	case
10	determination	determination	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 characterising	obj
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 conclusion	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 conclusion	det
13	conclusion	conclusion	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 characterising	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 race	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 race	det
16	race	race	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 conclusion	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	accurately property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	characteris	gerund	you not said here	the Dodo's determination	upon the conclusion of the race	tree rules
3	determine		the Dodo			nom determination «act intransitive»: poss=agent
4	conclude			the race		nom conclusion «cognition 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

That everyone had lost and must sit down again

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 everyone	det
2	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	4 lost	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 lost	aux
4	lost	lose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 sit	cc
6	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 sit	aux
7	sit	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 lost	conj
8	down	down	ADP	_	7 sit	compound:prt
9	again	again	ADV	_	7 sit	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	past · perfect	everyone						vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	sit down	must	everyone not said here				again		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

That every participant had won and must receive a prize

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 participant	det
2	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	3 participant	det
3	participant	participant	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 won	nsubj
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 won	aux
5	won	win	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 receive	cc
7	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 receive	aux
8	receive	receive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 won	conj
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 prize	det
10	prize	prize	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 receive	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	win	past · perfect	that participant						vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	receive	must	that participant not said here	a prize					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prize=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

That the race was over and nobody could leave

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 race	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 race	det
3	race	race	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 over	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 over	cop
5	over	over	ADV	_	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 leave	cc
7	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	9 leave	nsubj
8	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 leave	aux
9	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 over	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	that race					over property	tree rules
2	leave	could	nobody						vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

That nobody had won

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 nobody	det
2	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 won	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 won	aux
4	won	win	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	win	past · perfect	nobody						vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/e4/