Exam question 1 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Flying Trunk, part 1: a burnt…

Upon what grounds was the paper consigned to the hearth by the household?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: grounds · What happens: be, consign · To what, where: paper

This is exam question 1 of lesson 828 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Flying Trunk, part 1: a burnt paper's last words, then a ruined son flies off in a magic trunk» 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	Upon	upon	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
3	grounds	grounds	NOUN	Number=Ptan	6 paper	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 paper	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 paper	det
6	paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 what	acl:relcl
7	consigned	consign	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 paper	acl
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 hearth	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 hearth	det
10	hearth	hearth	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 consigned	obl
11	by	by	ADP	_	13 household	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 household	det
13	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 consigned	obl:agent
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 what	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	grounds	the paper					tree rules
2	consign	participle		the paper not said here				to the hearth	tree rules

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

Because it was written on

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 written	mark
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 written	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 written	aux:pass
4	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	on	on	ADP	_	4 written	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write	past · passive		it					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Because it had been written upon and could not be sold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	5 written	mark
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 written	nsubj:pass
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 written	aux
4	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 written	aux:pass
5	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 written	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 sold	cc
8	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 sold	aux
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 sold	advmod
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 sold	aux:pass
11	sold	sell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 written	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write	past · perfect · passive		it					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	not sell	could · passive							vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»

Option 3

Because it was marked by ink and so could not be used

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 marked	mark
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 marked	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 marked	aux:pass
4	marked	mark	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 ink	case
6	ink	ink	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 marked	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 used	cc
8	so	so	ADV	_	12 used	advmod
9	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 used	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 used	advmod
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 used	aux:pass
12	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 marked	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mark	past · passive	ink	it					vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent subject=Destination
2	not use	could · passive	ink not said here						vn eat-39.1 «NP V»

Option 4

It was written upon

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 written	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 written	aux:pass
3	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	3 written	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write	past · passive		It					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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/828-pg27200-part39/e1/