Exam question 2 · Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part 55: the laundress co…

What was the principal cause of the family's financial ruin?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: family · What happens: be, ruin · To what, where: principal cause

This is exam question 2 of lesson 844 «Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part 55: the laundress collapses in the street and tells her sad story» 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 cause	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 cause	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cause	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cause	amod
5	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	11 ruin	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 family	det
8	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 ruin	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 family	case
10	financial	financial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 ruin	amod
11	ruin	ruin	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cause	nmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 cause	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal cause				of the family's financial ruin	tree rules
2	ruin		the family						nom ruin «state 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 · ← Mova's choice

the husband's long illness and the medical bills

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 husband	det
2	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 illness	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 husband	case
4	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 illness	amod
5	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 bills	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 bills	det
8	medical	medical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 bills	amod
9	bills	bill	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 illness	conj

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

Option 2

the illness that ate the family savings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 illness	det
2	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 ate	nsubj
4	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 illness	acl:relcl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 savings	det
6	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 savings	compound
7	savings	savings	NOUN	Number=Ptan	4 ate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	past	the illness	the family savings					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent savings=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

the shipwreck that lost the borrowed money

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shipwreck	det
2	shipwreck	shipwreck	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 lost	nsubj
4	lost	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 shipwreck	acl:relcl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 money	det
6	borrowed	borrow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 money	amod
7	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 lost	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	past	the shipwreck	the borrowed money					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Eventuality
2	borrow	participle							vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

the shipwreck and a bank that failed in town

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shipwreck	det
2	shipwreck	shipwreck	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 failed	nsubj
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 bank	cc
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 bank	det
5	bank	bank	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 shipwreck	conj
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 failed	nsubj
7	failed	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 town	case
9	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 failed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fail	past	the shipwreck and a bank			town			vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V PP.eventuality S_ING»: agent=Agent in town=Eventuality

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/844-pg27200-part55/e2/