Exam question 3 · Andersen's Tales, The Butterfly: a butterfly cannot choose…

What reason does the text give for the butterfly's failure to obtain a wife at any time during his life?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: reason, text, butterfly · What happens: do, give, obtain, fail · To what, where: wife

This is exam question 3 of lesson 808 «Andersen's Tales, The Butterfly: a butterfly cannot choose a wife and is pinned in a box of curiosities» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 reason	det
2	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	nsubj
3	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 text	det
5	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	nsubj
6	give	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 does	ccomp
7	for	for	ADP	_	11 failure	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 butterfly	det
9	butterfly	butterfly	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 failure	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 butterfly	case
11	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	obl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 obtain	mark
13	obtain	obtain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 give	advcl
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 wife	det
15	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 obtain	obj
16	at	at	ADP	_	18 time	case
17	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	18 time	det
18	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 obtain	obl
19	during	during	ADP	_	21 life	case
20	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 life	nmod:poss
21	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 obtain	obl
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	do	present	what reason				tree rules
2	give	present	the text			for the butterfly's failure	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent for failure=Asset
3	obtain	to-infinitive	the text not said here	a wife	during text's life; time		vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset wife=Theme
4	fail		the butterfly				nom failure «act intransitive»: 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 · ✓ the right answer

His excessive delay in choosing

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	3 delay	nmod:poss
2	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 delay	amod
3	delay	delay	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	in	in	SCONJ	_	5 choosing	mark
5	choosing	choose	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 delay	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	choose	gerund	His excessive delay not said here						vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

He was shy

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 shy	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 shy	cop
3	shy	shy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

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

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

His careless pick of the wrong flower

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	3 pick	nmod:poss
2	careless	careless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 pick	amod
3	pick	pick	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 flower	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 flower	det
6	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 flower	amod
7	flower	flower	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pick	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pick		His = he	the wrong flower					nom pick «cognition transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

Option 4

His poor choice of flowers

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	3 choice	nmod:poss
2	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 choice	amod
3	choice	choice	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 flowers	case
5	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 choice	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/808-pg27200-part19/e3/