Exam question 4 · Andersen's Tales, The Goloshes of Fortune, part 52: the cl…

To whom were the birds sold, and at what price?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: be, sell · To what, where: birds

This is exam question 4 of lesson 841 «Andersen's Tales, The Goloshes of Fortune, part 52: the clerk, now a lark, is bought and placed in a lady's cage» 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	To	to	ADP	_	2 whom	case
2	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 birds	obl
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 birds	cop
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 birds	det
5	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 sold	nsubj:pass
6	sold	sell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 what	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 what	cc
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 what	case
10	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	6 sold	parataxis
11	price	price	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 what	nsubj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 sold	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the birds					tree rules
2	sell	participle · passive		the birds					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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

to a sailor, for ninepence and a biscuit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	to	to	ADP	_	3 sailor	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 sailor	det
3	sailor	sailor	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 ninepence	punct
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 ninepence	case
6	ninepence	ninepence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sailor	conj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 biscuit	cc
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 biscuit	det
9	biscuit	biscuit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sailor	conj

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

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

to two schoolboys who lived near the harbour, for eightpence in coins

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	to	to	ADP	_	3 schoolboys	case
2	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 schoolboys	nummod
3	schoolboys	schoolboy	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 lived	nsubj
5	lived	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 schoolboys	acl:relcl
6	near	near	ADP	_	8 harbour	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 harbour	det
8	harbour	harbour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 lived	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 eightpence	punct
10	for	for	ADP	_	11 eightpence	case
11	eightpence	eightpence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 lived	obl
12	in	in	ADP	_	13 coins	case
13	coins	coin	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 eightpence	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	live	past	two schoolboys			the harbour		for eightpence in coins	vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme near harbour=Location

Option 3

a farmer, for fivepence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 farmer	det
2	farmer	farmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 farmer	punct
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 fivepence	case
5	fivepence	fivepence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 farmer	nmod

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

two schoolboys, for eightpence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 schoolboys	nummod
2	schoolboys	schoolboy	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 eightpence	punct
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 eightpence	case
5	eightpence	eightpence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 schoolboys	conj

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/841-pg27200-part52/e4/