Exam question 2 · The Wind in the Willows, chapter XII, part 3: The Return o…

Ascertain the true motive underlying Toad's sudden acquiescence in the Badger's request.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, Toad, Badger · What happens: ascertain, acquiesce, request · To what, where: true motive underlying sudden acquiescence, request

This is exam question 2 of lesson 72 «The Wind in the Willows, chapter XII, part 3: The Return of Ulysses (the invitations, «SPEECH BY TOAD» and «not one little song»)» 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	9 acquiescence	det
3	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 acquiescence	amod
4	motive	motive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 acquiescence	amod
5	underlying	underlying	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 acquiescence	amod
6	Toad	Toad	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 acquiescence	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 Toad	case
8	sudden	sudden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 acquiescence	amod
9	acquiescence	acquiescence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
10	in	in	ADP	_	14 request	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 Badger	det
12	Badger	Badger	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 request	nmod:poss
13	's	's	PART	_	12 Badger	case
14	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 acquiescence	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	Toad's true motive underlying sudden acquiescence	the Badger's request	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent acquiescence=Topic
2	acquiesce		Toad		the Badger's request	nom acquiescence «state intransitive»: poss=agent in=place
3	request		the Badger			nom request «communication 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

To be polite

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	3 polite	mark
2	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	3 polite	cop
3	polite	polite	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	to-infinitive						polite property	tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

His design to fill the invitations with self-praise

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 design	nmod:poss
2	design	design	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fill	nsubj
3	to	to	PART	_	4 fill	mark
4	fill	fill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 invitations	det
6	invitations	invitation	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 fill	obj
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 praise	case
8	self	self	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 praise	compound
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	8 self	punct
10	praise	praise	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fill	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fill	to-infinitive	His design	the invitations				with self praise	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent invitation=Patient with praise=Instrument
2	design		His = he						nom design «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

A wish to annoy the Rat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 wish	det
2	wish	wish	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 annoy	mark
4	annoy	annoy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wish	acl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Rat	det
6	Rat	Rat	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 annoy	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	annoy	to-infinitive		the Rat					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus rat=Experiencer

Option 4

Simple obedience to Badger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Simple	simple	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 obedience	amod
2	obedience	obedience	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 Badger	case
4	Badger	Badger	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 obedience	nmod

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

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/72-willows-ch12-part3-no-speeches-and-no-songs/e2/