Exam question 1 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, Thumbelina, part 93: Tiny escapes…

By which means did the small fishes effect the separation of the leaf from its moorings?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: leaf · What happens: mean, do, separate · To what, where: fishes effect · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 882 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, Thumbelina, part 93: Tiny escapes the toads, is carried off, and freezes in winter» 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	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 effect	det
6	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 fishes	amod
7	fishes	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 effect	compound
8	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 separation	det
10	separation	separation	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 effect	appos
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 leaf	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 leaf	det
13	leaf	leaf	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 separation	nmod
14	from	from	ADP	_	16 moorings	case
15	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 moorings	nmod:poss
16	moorings	mooring	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 leaf	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past		the fishes effect	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent effect=Eventuality
3	separate		the leaf from leaf's moorings		nom separation «state 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

By biting the leaf

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 biting	mark
2	biting	bite	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 leaf	det
4	leaf	leaf	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 biting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bite	gerund		the leaf					vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

By gnawing the stalk at its root

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 gnawing	mark
2	gnawing	gnaw	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 stalk	det
4	stalk	stalk	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 gnawing	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 root	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 root	nmod:poss
7	root	root	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 gnawing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	gnaw	gerund		the stalk		stalk's root			vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stalk=Patient

Option 3

By pulling it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 pulling	mark
2	pulling	pull	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 pulling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull	gerund		it					vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

By wind blowing hard on the stem

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	2 wind	case
2	wind	wind	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	blowing	blow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 wind	acl
4	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	3 blowing	advmod
5	on	on	ADP	_	7 stem	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 stem	det
7	stem	stem	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 blowing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	blow	gerund	wind not said here			the stem		hard property	vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=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/882-pg27200-part93/e1/