Exam question 3 · Andersen's Tales, The Buckwheat: a proud buckwheat defies…

By what means did the willow-tree advise the buckwheat to protect itself?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: mean, do, protect · To what, where: tree advise, buckwheat · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 807 «Andersen's Tales, The Buckwheat: a proud buckwheat defies the storm and is burnt black» 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	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 advise	det
6	willow	willow	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 tree	compound
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 willow	punct
8	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 advise	compound
9	advise	advice	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 buckwheat	det
11	buckwheat	buckwheat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 protect	mark
13	protect	protect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 buckwheat	acl
14	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	13 protect	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past	the tree advise	tree rules
3	protect	to-infinitive	buckwheat	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Beneficiary

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

By staring up at the bright sky above

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 staring	mark
2	staring	stare	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	up	up	ADP	_	2 staring	compound:prt
4	at	at	ADP	_	7 sky	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 sky	det
6	bright	bright	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 sky	amod
7	sky	sky	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 staring	obl
8	above	above	ADV	_	2 staring	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stare up	gerund						at the bright sky; above property	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at sky=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

By bending its head and closing its flowers, as the other plants in the field had done

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 bending	mark
2	bending	bend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 head	nmod:poss
4	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bending	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 closing	cc
6	closing	close	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 bending	conj
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 flowers	nmod:poss
8	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 closing	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 plants	punct
10	as	as	ADP	_	13 plants	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 plants	det
12	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 plants	amod
13	plants	plant	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 bending	obl
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 field	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 field	det
16	field	field	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 done	obl
17	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 done	aux
18	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	13 plants	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	bend	gerund	its head		as the other plants	vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent head=Material
2	close	gerund	head's flowers			vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flower=Patient
3	do	past · perfect	the other plants not said here	the field		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By bending its head and closing its flowers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 bending	mark
2	bending	bend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 head	nmod:poss
4	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bending	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 closing	cc
6	closing	close	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 bending	conj
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 flowers	nmod:poss
8	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 closing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bend	gerund		its head					vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent head=Material
2	close	gerund		head's flowers					vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flower=Patient

Option 4

By calling loudly to the storm angel

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 calling	mark
2	calling	call	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	2 calling	advmod
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 angel	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 angel	det
6	storm	storm	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 angel	compound
7	angel	angel	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 calling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	call	gerund			the storm angel			loudly property	vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to angel=Recipient

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/807-pg27200-part18/e3/