Exam question 3 · Fairy Tales, The Little Elder-Tree Mother, part 82: Little…

Which of the following accurately states the purpose of the elder-tree blossoms in the boy's tea?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: tree blossoms · What happens: follow, state, purpose · To what, where: purpose

This is exam question 3 of lesson 871 «Fairy Tales, The Little Elder-Tree Mother, part 82: Little Claus tricks Great Claus into the river, and an old man begins a story from the teapot» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 states	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 states	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 states	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 states	nsubj
5	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	6 states	advmod
6	states	state	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 purpose	det
8	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 states	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	14 blossoms	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 blossoms	det
11	elder	elder	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 tree	compound
12	-	-	PUNCT	_	11 elder	punct
13	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 blossoms	compound
14	blossoms	blossom	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 purpose	nmod
15	in	in	ADP	_	19 tea	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 boy	det
17	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 tea	nmod:poss
18	's	's	PART	_	17 boy	case
19	tea	tea	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 blossoms	nmod
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 states	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	state speech: other	present		the purpose of the tree blossoms in the boy's tea	accurately property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent purpose=Topic
3	purpose		the tree blossoms in the boy's tea			nom purpose «cognition intransitive»: of=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

They are placed on the boy's feet to dry them

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 placed	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 placed	aux:pass
3	placed	place	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	on	on	ADP	_	8 feet	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 boy	det
6	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 feet	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 boy	case
8	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 placed	obl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 dry	mark
10	dry	dry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 placed	advcl
11	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 dry	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	present · passive		They		the boy's feet			vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: subject=Theme on foot=Destination
2	dry	to-infinitive		feet = foot					vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient they=Result

Option 2

They are used to dye the tea a pale colour

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 used	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 used	aux:pass
3	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 dye	mark
5	dye	dye	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 used	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 tea	det
7	tea	tea	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dye	obj
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 colour	det
9	pale	pale	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 colour	amod
10	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dye	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	present · passive		They					vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: subject=Theme clause=Eventuality
2	dye	to-infinitive		the tea					vn coloring-24 «NP V NP ADJP»: agent=Agent tea=Patient colour=Result

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

They are used to make the tea warming

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 used	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 used	aux:pass
3	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 make	mark
5	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 used	advcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 warming	det
7	tea	tea	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 warming	compound
8	warming	warming	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 make	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	present · passive		They					vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	make	to-infinitive		the tea warming					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset warming=Product

Option 4

They are added to the tea to sweeten it

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 added	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 added	aux:pass
3	added	add	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 tea	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 tea	det
6	tea	tea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 added	obl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 sweeten	mark
8	sweeten	sweeten	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 added	advcl
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 sweeten	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	add speech: assert	present · passive		They				to the tea	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient to tea=Co-Patient
2	sweeten	to-infinitive		tea					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient

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/871-pg27200-part82/e3/