Exam question 2 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel, part 19: the child…

What was the principal reason for the parents' decision to abandon their children?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: parents · What happens: be, abandon, decide · To what, where: principal reason, children

This is exam question 2 of lesson 743 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel, part 19: the children are led into the forest and get lost» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	5 reason	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reason	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 reason	amod
5	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	10 decision	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 parents	det
8	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 decision	nmod:poss
9	'	's	PART	_	8 parents	case
10	decision	decision	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 reason	nmod
11	to	to	PART	_	12 abandon	mark
12	abandon	abandon	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 decision	acl
13	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 children	nmod:poss
14	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 abandon	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal reason	for the parents's decision	tree rules
2	abandon	to-infinitive		parents's children		vn leave-51.2 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme child=Source
3	decide		the parents			nom decision «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

A wicked stepmother's cruel plan

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 stepmother	det
2	wicked	wicked	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 stepmother	amod
3	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 plan	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 stepmother	case
5	cruel	cruel	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 plan	amod
6	plan	plan	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	plan		a wicked stepmother						nom plan «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Severe famine afflicting the household

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Severe	severe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 famine	amod
2	famine	famine	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	afflicting	afflict	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 famine	acl
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 household	det
5	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 afflicting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	afflict	gerund	Severe famine not said here	the household					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus household=Experiencer

Option 3

Hunger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hunger	hunger	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 4

Their family was very poor

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 family	nmod:poss
2	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 poor	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 poor	cop
4	very	very	ADV	_	5 poor	advmod
5	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Their family					poor property	tree rules

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/743-pg2591-part19/e2/