Exam question 3 · Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part 55: the laundress co…

What illness did the laundress's husband suffer before his death?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: illness, husband · What happens: do, suffer, die

This is exam question 3 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	3 did	obj
2	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 laundress	det
5	laundress	laundress	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 husband	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 laundress	case
7	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 suffer	nsubj
8	suffer	suffer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 did	parataxis
9	before	before	ADP	_	11 death	case
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 death	nmod:poss
11	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 suffer	obl
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	roles by
1	do	past	illness		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality
2	suffer	present	the laundress's husband	before husband's death	vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
3	die		husband		nom death «event intransitive»: 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

a long illness that wasted his body away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 illness	det
2	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 illness	amod
3	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 wasted	nsubj
5	wasted	waste	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 illness	acl:relcl
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 body	nmod:poss
7	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 wasted	obj
8	away	away	ADV	_	5 wasted	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	waste away	past	a long illness	his body				away property	vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent body=Patient

Option 2

a sickness of the lungs that lasted through a winter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 sickness	det
2	sickness	sickness	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 lasted	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 lungs	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 lungs	det
5	lungs	lung	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 sickness	nmod
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 lasted	nsubj
7	lasted	last	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	through	through	ADP	_	10 winter	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 winter	det
10	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 lasted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	last	past	a sickness of the lungs				winter		vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

a prolonged lingering illness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 illness	det
2	prolonged	prolong	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 illness	amod
3	lingering	lingering	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 illness	compound
4	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prolong	participle							vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent

Option 4

a sudden violent fever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 fever	det
2	sudden	sudden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 fever	amod
3	violent	violent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 fever	amod
4	fever	fever	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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/844-pg27200-part55/e3/