Test 3 · ★★ · Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 1: The driest thing…

Why is the Mouse's plan to dry them with history a joke?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: be, dry · To what, where: plan, them

This is test 3 · ★★ 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. 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	6 plan	advmod
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 plan	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Mouse	det
4	Mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 plan	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 Mouse	case
6	plan	plan	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 dry	mark
8	dry	dry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 plan	acl
9	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 dry	obj
10	with	with	ADP	_	11 history	case
11	history	history	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 dry	obl
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 joke	det
13	joke	joke	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 dry	obl:unmarked
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 plan	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present		the Mouse's plan					tree rules
2	dry	to-infinitive		them = they				with history; a joke obl:unmarked	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent they=Patient with history=Instrument

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

Because the history was about William, who was a French knight with dry wit

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	6 William	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 history	det
3	history	history	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 William	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 William	cop
5	about	about	ADP	_	6 William	case
6	William	William	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 knight	punct
8	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 knight	nsubj
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 knight	cop
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 knight	det
11	French	French	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 knight	amod
12	knight	knight	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 William	appos
13	with	with	ADP	_	15 wit	case
14	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 wit	amod
15	wit	wit	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 knight	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the history					about William	tree rules
2	is a	past	William	a French knight				with dry wit	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

"Dry" can mean boring as well as not wet

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Dry	punct
2	Dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 mean	nsubj
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Dry	punct
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 mean	aux
5	mean	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	boring	boring	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 mean	xcomp
7	as	as	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	11 wet	cc
8	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	7 as	fixed
9	as	as	ADP	_	7 as	fixed
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 wet	advmod
11	wet	wet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 boring	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	can	Dry					boring property	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Dry history makes a fun story to read

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 history	amod
2	history	history	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	nsubj
3	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 story	det
5	fun	fun	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 story	amod
6	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	obj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 read	mark
8	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 story	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	Dry history	a fun story					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset story=Product
2	read	to-infinitive	Dry history not said here	a fun story not said here					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The Mouse wanted to dry them with a long speech about William the Conqueror

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Mouse	det
2	Mouse	Mouse	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 wanted	nsubj
3	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 dry	mark
5	dry	dry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 wanted	xcomp
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 dry	obj
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 speech	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 speech	det
9	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 speech	amod
10	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dry	obl
11	about	about	ADP	_	12 William	case
12	William	William	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 speech	nmod
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 Conqueror	det
14	Conqueror	conqueror	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 William	appos

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	the Mouse						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	dry not said to happen	to-infinitive	the Mouse not said here	them = they				with a long speech about William	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent they=Patient with speech=Instrument

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.

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