Exam question 3 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 1: a little fir…

By what means did the wood-cutters remove the tall trees from the forest, according to the narrative?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: wood cutters · What happens: mean, do, remove, accord · To what, where: tall trees, forest

This is exam question 3 of lesson 825 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 1: a little fir-tree longs to be tall, is cut down, and is dressed for Christmas» 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	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 did	obj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 cutters	det
6	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 cutters	compound
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 wood	punct
8	cutters	cutter	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 remove	nsubj
9	remove	remove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	parataxis
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 trees	det
11	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 trees	amod
12	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 remove	obj
13	from	from	ADP	_	15 forest	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 forest	det
15	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 trees	nmod
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 narrative	punct
17	according	accord	VERB	ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	20 narrative	case
18	to	to	ADP	_	17 according	fixed
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 narrative	det
20	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 remove	obl
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	mean	present					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	do	past					vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality
3	remove	present	the wood cutters	the tall trees	the forest	accord the narrative	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent tree=Theme from forest=Source
4	accord	gerund					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice

By sledge

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	2 sledge	case
2	sledge	sledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

Great wagons drawn by horses along the frozen road to town

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 wagons	amod
2	wagons	wagon	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	drawn	draw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 wagons	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 horses	case
5	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 drawn	obl
6	along	along	ADP	_	9 road	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 road	det
8	frozen	freeze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 road	amod
9	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drawn	obl
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 town	case
11	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 road	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	draw	participle		Great wagons not said here				by horses; along the frozen road to town	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	freeze	participle							vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Wagons drawn by horses

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wagons	wagon	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	drawn	draw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Wagons	acl
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 horses	case
4	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 drawn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	draw	participle		Wagons not said here				by horses	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Carts pulled by oxen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Carts	cart	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	pulled	pull	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Carts	acl
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 oxen	case
4	oxen	ox	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pulled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull	participle		Carts not said here				by oxen	vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/825-pg27200-part36/e3/