Exam question 3 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, Thumbelina: Tiny is promised to th…

Explain the reason the swallow gave for leaving the district at the onset of autumn.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, swallow · What happens: explain, give, leave · To what, where: reason, district, onset

This is exam question 3 of lesson 884 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, Thumbelina: Tiny is promised to the mole, flies off with the swallow, and is named Maia; then Little Tuk's story starts.» 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	Explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Explain	obj
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 swallow	det
5	swallow	swallow	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gave	nsubj
6	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	8 leaving	mark
8	leaving	leave	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 gave	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 district	det
10	district	district	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 leaving	obj
11	at	at	ADP	_	13 onset	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 onset	det
13	onset	onset	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 leaving	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 autumn	case
15	autumn	autumn	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 onset	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	imperative	you not said here	the reason		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	give	past	the swallow	the reason not said here		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
3	leave	gerund	the swallow not said here	the district	the onset of autumn	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent district=Theme at onset=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

winter came

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 came	nsubj
2	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past	winter						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

the flowers were dying off

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 flowers	det
2	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 dying	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 dying	aux
4	dying	die	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	off	off	ADP	_	4 dying	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die off	past · progressive	the flowers						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

cold winter was approaching

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 winter	amod
2	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 approaching	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 approaching	aux
4	approaching	approach	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	approach	past · progressive	cold winter						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

the nights were growing long

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 nights	det
2	nights	night	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 growing	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 growing	aux
4	growing	grow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	4 growing	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	past · progressive	the nights					long property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/884-pg27200-part95/e3/