Exam question 3 · Andersen's Tales, The Metal Pig: the boy sneaks out to the…

Which phrase from the passage most clearly expresses the boy's wish to die?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: phrase, boy · What happens: express, die, wish · To what, where: wish

This is exam question 3 of lesson 899 «Andersen's Tales, The Metal Pig: the boy sneaks out to the Metal Pig, Bellissima is taken by police, and the boy starts drawing» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 phrase	det
2	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 expresses	nsubj
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 passage	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 passage	det
5	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 phrase	nmod
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 clearly	advmod
7	clearly	clearly	ADV	_	8 expresses	advmod
8	expresses	express	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 boy	det
10	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 wish	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 boy	case
12	wish	wish	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 expresses	obj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 die	mark
14	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 wish	acl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 expresses	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	express	present	which phrase from the passage	the boy's wish	clearly property	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wish=Theme
2	die	to-infinitive	which phrase from the passage not said here	the boy's wish not said here		vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
3	wish		the boy			nom wish «feeling intransitive»: poss=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

I long to be with the pig

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	2 long	nsubj
2	long	long	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	7 pig	mark
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 pig	cop
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 pig	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 pig	det
7	pig	pig	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 long	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	long	present	I						vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot
2	is	to-infinitive	I not said here					with the pig	tree rules

Option 2

Let me die

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Let	let	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	1 Let	obj
3	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Let	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	let	imperative	you not said here	me					tree rules
2	die	infinitive	me not said here						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 3

I want to die

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	2 want	nsubj
2	want	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 die	mark
4	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 want	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	present	I						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	die not said to happen	to-infinitive	I not said here						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

"I would gladly be killed"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 killed	punct
2	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 killed	nsubj:pass
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 killed	aux
4	gladly	gladly	ADV	_	6 killed	advmod
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 killed	aux:pass
6	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 killed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kill in a quote	would · passive		I				gladly property	vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=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/899-pg27200-part110/e3/