Exam question 4 · Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part 55: the laundress co…

What quality did the mistress ascribe to the poor when she spoke of them?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: mistress · What happens: ascribe, speak · To what, where: quality · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 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	6 ascribe	obj
2	quality	quality	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 ascribe	obj
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 ascribe	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 mistress	det
5	mistress	mistress	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 ascribe	nsubj
6	ascribe	ascribe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 poor	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 poor	det
9	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 ascribe	obl
10	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	12 spoke	advmod
11	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 spoke	nsubj
12	spoke	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 poor	advcl
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 them	case
14	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 spoke	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 ascribe	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascribe	past · do-support	the mistress	quality				to the poor	tree rules
2	speak speech: other	past	mistress					of them = they	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: 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

they are often more virtuous than the rich and proud

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 virtuous	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 virtuous	cop
3	often	often	ADV	_	5 virtuous	advmod
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 virtuous	advmod
5	virtuous	virtuous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	than	than	ADP	_	8 rich	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 rich	det
8	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 virtuous	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 proud	cc
10	proud	proud	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 virtuous	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	they					than the rich; often, virtuous property	tree rules
2	be		they not said here						tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

they may stand higher in God's sight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 stand	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 stand	aux
3	stand	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	higher	high	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 stand	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	8 sight	case
6	God	God	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 sight	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 God	case
8	sight	sight	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 stand	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stand	may	they			God's sight			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in sight=Location
2	sight		God						nom sight «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

they often win the world's favour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 win	nsubj
2	often	often	ADV	_	3 win	advmod
3	win	win	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 world	det
5	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 favour	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 world	case
7	favour	favour	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 win	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	win	present	they	the world's favour				often property	vn succeed-74-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent favour=Eventuality
2	favour		the world						nom favour «feeling transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

they may stand higher in God's sight than the rich

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 stand	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 stand	aux
3	stand	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	higher	high	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 stand	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	8 sight	case
6	God	God	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 sight	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 God	case
8	sight	sight	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 stand	obl
9	than	than	ADP	_	11 rich	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 rich	det
11	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 stand	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stand	may	they			God's sight		than the rich	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in sight=Location
2	sight		God						nom sight «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

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/e4/