Exam question 1 · Andersen's Tales, The Old Oak Tree's Last Dream: a Christm…

Identify the species of bird described as perching upon the oak prior to the commencement of the narrative.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, describe, perch · To what, where: species, bird, oak

This is exam question 1 of lesson 867 «Andersen's Tales, The Old Oak Tree's Last Dream: a Christmas storm uproots the oak as he dreams of summer and of all the small plants rising up with him» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 species	det
3	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 bird	case
5	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 species	nmod
6	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 bird	acl
7	as	as	SCONJ	_	8 perching	mark
8	perching	perch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 described	advcl
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 oak	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 oak	det
11	oak	oak	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 perching	obl
12	prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	15 commencement	case
13	to	to	ADP	_	12 prior	fixed
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 commencement	det
15	commencement	commencement	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 oak	nmod
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 narrative	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 narrative	det
18	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 commencement	nmod
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the species of bird		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent species=Theme
2	describe	participle		bird not said here		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
3	perch	gerund			the oak prior the commencement of the narrative	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon oak=Location

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

Migratory starlings that gathered upon the old branches

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Migratory	Migratory	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 starlings	compound
2	starlings	starling	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 gathered	nsubj
3	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 gathered	nsubj
4	gathered	gather	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 branches	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 branches	det
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 branches	amod
8	branches	branch	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 gathered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	gather	past	Migratory starlings					upon the old branches	vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Herons and gulls

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Herons	heron	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 gulls	cc
3	gulls	gull	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Herons	conj

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

Option 3

Common blackbirds and thrushes perched in flocks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 blackbirds	amod
2	blackbirds	blackbird	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 thrushes	cc
4	thrushes	thrush	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 blackbirds	conj
5	perched	perch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 blackbirds	acl
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 flocks	case
7	flocks	flock	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 perched	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perch	participle		Common blackbirds and thrushes not said here		flocks			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in flock=Location

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Crows and rooks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crows	crow	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 rooks	cc
3	rooks	rook	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Crows	conj

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/867-pg27200-part78/e1/