Exam question 3 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 87: the s…

To which of her sisters' sightings of the surface world does the text attribute the phrase "she was the boldest of them all"?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: she, sisters · What happens: do, be, sight · To what, where: text attribute, surface world

This is exam question 3 of lesson 876 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 87: the sea-princesses dream of the world above the waves» 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	To	to	ADP	_	2 which	case
2	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 does	obl
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 sightings	case
4	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 sisters	nmod:poss
5	sisters	sister	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 sightings	nmod:poss
6	'	's	PART	_	5 sisters	case
7	sightings	sighting	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 does	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 world	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 world	det
10	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 world	compound
11	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sightings	nmod
12	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 attribute	det
14	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 attribute	compound
15	attribute	attribute	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 does	obj
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 phrase	det
17	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 does	obj
18	"	"	PUNCT	_	22 boldest	punct
19	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 boldest	nsubj
20	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	22 boldest	cop
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 boldest	det
22	boldest	bold	ADJ	Degree=Sup	17 phrase	appos
23	of	of	ADP	_	24 them	case
24	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 boldest	obl
25	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	24 them	nmod:unmarked
26	"	"	PUNCT	_	22 boldest	punct
27	?	?	PUNCT	_	12 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	present		the text attribute	of her sisters's sightings of the surface world	tree rules
2	is in a quote	past	she		of sightings = sighting; bold property	tree rules
3	sight		her sisters	the surface world		nom sighting «act transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

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 fourth sister's stay in the middle of the ocean

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sister	det
2	fourth	fourth	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	3 sister	amod
3	sister	sister	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 stay	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 sister	case
5	stay	stay	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 middle	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 middle	det
8	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 stay	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 ocean	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 ocean	det
11	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 middle	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stay		the fourth sister			the middle of the ocean			nom stay «act intransitive»: poss=agent in=place

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

the second sister's sunset above the wide sea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sister	det
2	second	second	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	3 sister	amod
3	sister	sister	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sunset	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 sister	case
5	sunset	sunset	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	above	above	ADP	_	9 sea	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sea	det
8	wide	wide	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 sea	amod
9	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sunset	nmod

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

Option 3

the fifth sister's long journey up the broad river to the sunlit shore beyond the reeds

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sister	det
2	fifth	fifth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 sister	amod
3	sister	sister	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 journey	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 sister	case
5	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 journey	amod
6	journey	journey	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	up	up	ADP	_	10 river	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 river	det
9	broad	broad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 river	amod
10	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 journey	nmod
11	to	to	ADP	_	14 shore	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 shore	det
13	sunlit	sunlit	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 shore	amod
14	shore	shore	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 river	nmod
15	beyond	beyond	ADP	_	17 reeds	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 reeds	det
17	reeds	reed	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 shore	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	journey		the fifth sister					up the broad river to the sunlit shore beyond the reeds	nom journey «act transitive»: poss=agent up=obl

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

the third sister's excursion up the broad river

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sister	det
2	third	third	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	3 sister	amod
3	sister	sister	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 excursion	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 sister	case
5	excursion	excursion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	up	up	ADP	_	9 river	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 river	det
8	broad	broad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 river	amod
9	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 excursion	nmod

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/876-pg27200-part87/e3/