Exam question 2 · Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling), 5: The Elephant's Child…

Ascertain the reason for which the Elephant's Child discarded the rind of the melons along his route.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Child · What happens: ascertain, discard · To what, where: reason, rind, route

This is exam question 2 of lesson 79 «Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling), 5: The Elephant's Child, part 1 (What does the Crocodile have for dinner?)» 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 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 discarded	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Elephant	det
7	Elephant	Elephant	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 Child	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 Elephant	case
9	Child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 discarded	nsubj
10	discarded	discard	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 rind	det
12	rind	rind	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 discarded	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 melons	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 melons	det
15	melons	melon	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 rind	nmod
16	along	along	ADP	_	18 route	case
17	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 route	nmod:poss
18	route	route	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 discarded	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	discard	past	the Elephant's Child	the rind of the melons		Child's route		for the reason	vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent rind=Theme along route=Destination

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

He wanted to leave a trail for his relations

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 leave	mark
4	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wanted	xcomp
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 trail	det
6	trail	trail	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 leave	obj
7	for	for	ADP	_	9 relations	case
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 relations	nmod:poss
9	relations	relation	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 leave	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	He						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	leave not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here	a trail				for his relations	vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent trail=Theme for relation=Recipient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He was unable to pick it up with his nose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 unable	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 unable	cop
3	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 pick	mark
5	pick	pick	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 unable	xcomp
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 pick	obj
7	up	up	ADP	_	5 pick	compound:prt
8	with	with	ADP	_	10 nose	case
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 nose	nmod:poss
10	nose	nose	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pick	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	He					unable property	tree rules
2	pick up	to-infinitive	He not said here	it				with his nose	vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He was unable to pick it up with his nose, so he threw the rinds about the plain as he walked

The tree, 21 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 unable	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 unable	cop
3	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 pick	mark
5	pick	pick	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 unable	xcomp
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 pick	obj
7	up	up	ADP	_	5 pick	compound:prt
8	with	with	ADP	_	10 nose	case
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 nose	nmod:poss
10	nose	nose	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pick	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 threw	punct
12	so	so	ADV	_	14 threw	advmod
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 threw	nsubj
14	threw	throw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 unable	parataxis
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 rinds	det
16	rinds	rind	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 threw	obj
17	about	about	ADP	_	19 plain	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 plain	det
19	plain	plain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 rinds	nmod
20	as	as	SCONJ	_	22 walked	mark
21	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 walked	nsubj
22	walked	walk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 threw	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	He		unable property	tree rules
2	pick up	to-infinitive	He not said here	it	with his nose	vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic
3	throw	past	he	the rinds	about the plain	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent rind=Theme about plain=Destination
4	walk	past	he			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

He had eaten all the melon inside it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 eaten	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 eaten	aux
3	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 melon	det:predet
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 melon	det
6	melon	melon	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 eaten	obj
7	inside	inside	ADP	_	8 it	case
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 melon	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	past · perfect	He	all melon		melon			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent melon=Patient

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/79-justso-elephants-child-1/e2/