Exam question 4 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Elf Hill: the Norwegian goblin…

Which reason does the text give for the goblin's preference that his sons should not take the vanishing accomplishment?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: reason, text, sons, goblin · What happens: do, give, not take, vanish, prefer · To what, where: vanishing accomplishment

This is exam question 4 of lesson 823 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Elf Hill: the Norwegian goblin visits, and the seven daughters show their skills» 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	Which	which	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 preference	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 goblin	det
9	goblin	goblin	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 preference	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 goblin	case
11	preference	preference	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	obl
12	that	that	SCONJ	_	17 take	mark
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 sons	nmod:poss
14	sons	son	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 take	nsubj
15	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	17 take	aux
16	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	17 take	advmod
17	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 preference	acl
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 accomplishment	det
19	vanishing	vanish	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	20 accomplishment	amod
20	accomplishment	accomplishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 take	obj
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	present	which reason			tree rules
2	give	present	the text		for the goblin's preference	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent for preference=Asset
3	not take	should	text's sons	the vanishing accomplishment		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent accomplishment=Theme
4	vanish	gerund				vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	prefer		the goblin			nom preference «feeling 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 · ✓ the right answer

His wife should not have such an accomplishment

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	2 wife	nmod:poss
2	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 have	nsubj
3	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 have	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 have	advmod
5	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	such	such	DET	PronType=Ind	8 accomplishment	det:predet
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 accomplishment	det
8	accomplishment	accomplishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not have	should	His wife	such accomplishment					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent accomplishment=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

His sons are too young to learn

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	2 sons	nmod:poss
2	sons	son	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 young	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 young	cop
4	too	too	ADV	_	5 young	advmod
5	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 learn	mark
7	learn	learn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 young	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	His sons					young property	tree rules
2	learn	to-infinitive	His sons not said here						vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Sons must not vanish

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sons	son	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 vanish	nsubj
2	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 vanish	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 vanish	advmod
4	vanish	vanish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not vanish	must	Sons						vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

He thinks boys should learn the harp only

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 thinks	nsubj
2	thinks	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 learn	nsubj
4	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 learn	aux
5	learn	learn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 thinks	ccomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 harp	det
7	harp	harp	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 learn	obj
8	only	only	ADV	_	5 learn	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	present	He						vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	learn	should	boys	the harp					vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent harp=Topic

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/823-pg27200-part34/e4/