Exam question 3 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Ice Maiden, part 64: a mother…

exam: What is the principal reason the uncle desires the boy's presence?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: exam, uncle · What happens: be, desire · To what, where: principal reason, presence

This is exam question 3 of lesson 853 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Ice Maiden, part 64: a mother lost in the ice, a boy sent to his uncle» 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	exam	exam	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 reason	nsubj
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	7 reason	punct
3	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	7 reason	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 reason	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 reason	det
6	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 reason	amod
7	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 uncle	det
9	uncle	uncle	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 desires	nsubj
10	desires	desire	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 reason	acl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 boy	det
12	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 presence	nmod:poss
13	's	's	PART	_	12 boy	case
14	presence	presence	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 desires	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	exam	the principal reason					tree rules
2	desire	present	the uncle	the boy's presence					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot presence=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 · ✓ the right answer

To secure him a better education

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 secure	mark
2	secure	secure	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 secure	obj
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 education	det
5	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 education	amod
6	education	education	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 secure	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	secure	to-infinitive		a better education	him = he				vn ensure-99 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Precondition he=Beneficiary education=Theme

Option 2

To help on the farm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 help	mark
2	help	help	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	on	on	ADP	_	5 farm	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 farm	det
5	farm	farm	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 help	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	to-infinitive				the farm			vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent

Option 3

To keep him safe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 keep	mark
2	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 keep	obj
4	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 keep	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	to-infinitive		him = he				safe property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Because he has no one else to help

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	3 has	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 has	nsubj
3	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 one	det
5	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	obj
6	else	else	ADV	_	5 one	advmod
7	to	to	PART	_	8 help	mark
8	help	help	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 one	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	he	no one					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient
2	help	to-infinitive	he not said here	no one not said here					vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=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/853-pg27200-part64/e3/