Exam question 2 · Andersen's Tales, The Ice Maiden, part 71: Rudy captures t…

What was the principal opinion expressed by the Ice Maiden regarding the human beings in the valley below?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: be, express, regard · To what, where: principal opinion, valley

This is exam question 2 of lesson 860 «Andersen's Tales, The Ice Maiden, part 71: Rudy captures the eaglet and brings it to the mill, while the Ice Maiden mocks the railway» 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 opinion	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 opinion	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 opinion	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 opinion	amod
5	opinion	opinion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	expressed	express	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 opinion	acl
7	by	by	ADP	_	10 Maiden	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Maiden	det
9	Ice	Ice	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Maiden	compound
10	Maiden	Maiden	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 expressed	obl
11	regarding	regard	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 beings	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 beings	det
13	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 beings	amod
14	beings	being	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 expressed	obl
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 valley	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 valley	det
17	valley	valley	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 expressed	obl
18	below	below	ADV	_	17 valley	advmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 opinion	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the principal opinion			tree rules
2	express	participle	the principal opinion not said here	the valley	by the Ice Maiden; regard the human beings	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	regard	gerund				vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: 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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

That they were insignificant creatures, comparable to worms, and easily crushed.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	7 comparable	nsubj
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 comparable	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 comparable	cop
4	insignificant	insignificant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 creatures	amod
5	creatures	creature	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 comparable	nsubj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 comparable	punct
7	comparable	comparable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 worms	case
9	worms	worm	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 comparable	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 crushed	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 crushed	cc
12	easily	easily	ADV	_	13 crushed	advmod
13	crushed	crush	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 comparable	parataxis
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 comparable	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	That					to worms; comparable property	tree rules
2	crush	participle						easily property	vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 2

That they were feeble folk, rather like ants, and rather annoying to watch.

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 folk	nsubj
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 folk	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 folk	cop
4	feeble	feeble	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 folk	amod
5	folk	folk	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 ants	punct
7	rather	rather	ADV	_	9 ants	advmod
8	like	like	ADP	_	9 ants	case
9	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 folk	conj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 annoying	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 annoying	cc
12	rather	rather	ADV	_	13 annoying	advmod
13	annoying	annoying	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 folk	conj
14	to	to	PART	_	15 watch	mark
15	watch	watch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 annoying	advcl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 folk	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	past	That	feeble folk and ants	tree rules
2	be		That not said here		tree rules
3	watch	to-infinitive	That not said here		vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent

Option 3

That they were small.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 small	nsubj
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 small	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 small	cop
4	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 small	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	That					small property	tree rules

Option 4

That they were dull.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 dull	nsubj
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 dull	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 dull	cop
4	dull	dull	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 dull	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	That					dull property	tree rules

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/860-pg27200-part71/e2/