Exam question 3 · The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 3: Wayfarers All…

Ascertain the nature of the seafarer's trade as described by himself.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, seafarer · What happens: ascertain, describe, trade · To what, where: nature

This is exam question 3 of lesson 58 «The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 3: Wayfarers All (the Sea Rat from Constantinople)» 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 nature	det
3	nature	nature	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	8 trade	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 seafarer	det
6	seafarer	seafarer	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 trade	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 seafarer	case
8	trade	trade	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 nature	nmod
9	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 described	mark
10	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Ascertain	advcl
11	by	by	ADP	_	12 himself	case
12	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	10 described	obl
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the nature of the seafarer's trade		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nature=Topic
2	describe	participle	you not said here		by himself = he	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
3	trade		the seafarer			nom trade «act transitive»: poss=agent

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

The coasting trade, seldom out of sight of land, which he took up after his first voyage as a boy in Norway

The tree, 22 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 trade	det
2	coasting	coasting	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 trade	compound
3	trade	trade	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 took	nsubj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 sight	punct
5	seldom	seldom	ADV	_	8 sight	advmod
6	out	out	ADP	_	8 sight	case
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 sight	case
8	sight	sight	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 trade	conj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 land	case
10	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 sight	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 took	punct
12	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 took	nsubj
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 took	nsubj
14	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
15	up	up	ADP	_	14 took	compound:prt
16	after	after	ADP	_	19 voyage	case
17	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 voyage	nmod:poss
18	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	19 voyage	amod
19	voyage	voyage	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 took	obl
20	as	as	ADP	_	22 boy	case
21	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 boy	det
22	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 took	obl
23	in	in	ADP	_	24 Norway	case
24	Norway	Norway	PROPN	Number=Sing	22 boy	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	take up	past	the coasting trade and sight of land		after his first voyage	as a boy in Norway	vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent as boy=Attribute
2	sight			land			nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient
3	voyage		his = he				nom voyage «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

Trading along the rivers and inland canals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Trading	trading	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	along	along	ADP	_	4 rivers	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 rivers	det
4	rivers	river	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Trading	nmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 canals	cc
6	inland	inland	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 canals	amod
7	canals	canal	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 rivers	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The coasting trade, seldom out of sight of land

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 trade	det
2	coasting	coasting	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 trade	compound
3	trade	trade	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 sight	punct
5	seldom	seldom	ADV	_	8 sight	advmod
6	out	out	ADP	_	8 sight	case
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 sight	case
8	sight	sight	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 trade	conj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 land	case
10	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 sight	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sight			land					nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Carrying cargo between distant foreign ports

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Carrying	carry	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	cargo	cargo	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Carrying	obj
3	between	between	ADP	_	6 ports	case
4	distant	distant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 ports	amod
5	foreign	foreign	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 ports	amod
6	ports	port	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Carrying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	gerund		cargo				between distant foreign ports	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cargo=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.

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