Exam question 2 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Darning Needle, part 1: a prou…

What was the principal motive for the daisy's distress at the lark's captivity?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: daisy · What happens: be, distress · To what, where: principal motive, captivity

This is exam question 2 of lesson 812 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Darning Needle, part 1: a proud needle is lost in a gutter» 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 motive	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 motive	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 motive	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 motive	amod
5	motive	motive	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	10 distress	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 daisy	det
8	daisy	daisy	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 distress	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 daisy	case
10	distress	distress	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 motive	nmod
11	at	at	ADP	_	15 captivity	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 lark	det
13	lark	lark	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 captivity	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 lark	case
15	captivity	captivity	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 distress	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 motive	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal motive				for the daisy's distress at the lark's captivity	tree rules
2	distress		the daisy			the lark's captivity			nom distress «feeling transitive»: poss=agent at=place

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

its deep and sincere pity for the caged bird

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 pity	nmod:poss
2	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 pity	amod
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 sincere	cc
4	sincere	sincere	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 deep	conj
5	pity	pity	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	9 bird	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 bird	det
8	caged	cage	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 bird	amod
9	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pity	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cage	participle							vn pocket-9.10 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent
2	pity		its = it					for the caged bird	nom pity «feeling transitive»: poss=agent for=obl

Option 2

the daisy's wish to be picked by the boy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 daisy	det
2	daisy	daisy	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wish	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 daisy	case
4	wish	wish	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	7 picked	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 picked	aux:pass
7	picked	pick	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 wish	acl
8	by	by	ADP	_	10 boy	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 boy	det
10	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 picked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pick	to-infinitive · passive	the boy						vn chew-39.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	wish		the daisy						nom wish «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

its sincere pity for the bird

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 pity	nmod:poss
2	sincere	sincere	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 pity	amod
3	pity	pity	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 bird	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 bird	det
6	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pity	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pity		its = it					for the bird	nom pity «feeling transitive»: poss=agent for=obl

Option 4

its strong love of flowers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 love	nmod:poss
2	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 love	amod
3	love	love	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 flowers	case
5	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 love	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	love		its = it	flowers					nom love «feeling transitive»: poss=agent of=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/812-pg27200-part23/e2/