Exam question 2 · Alice in Wonderland, chapter V, part 1: Advice from a Cate…

Ascertain the counsel which the Caterpillar described as something important to say.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Caterpillar · What happens: ascertain, describe, say · To what, where: counsel · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 9 «Alice in Wonderland, chapter V, part 1: Advice from a Caterpillar» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 counsel	det
3	counsel	counsel	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 described	obj
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Caterpillar	det
6	Caterpillar	Caterpillar	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 described	nsubj
7	described	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 counsel	acl:relcl
8	as	as	ADP	_	9 something	case
9	something	something	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	7 described	obl
10	important	important	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 something	amod
11	to	to	PART	_	12 say	mark
12	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 important	xcomp
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the counsel		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent counsel=Topic
2	describe	past	the Caterpillar	the counsel	as something	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent which=Theme as something=Attribute
3	say speech: assert	to-infinitive	the Caterpillar not said here			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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

To keep calm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 keep	mark
2	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	calm	calm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 keep	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	to-infinitive						calm property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

That she should hold her tongue

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 hold	nsubj
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 hold	nsubj
3	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 hold	aux
4	hold	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 tongue	nmod:poss
6	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hold	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	should	That	her tongue					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tongue=Theme

Option 3

That she must learn to take a joke

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 learn	nsubj
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 learn	nsubj
3	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 learn	aux
4	learn	learn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 take	mark
6	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 learn	xcomp
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 joke	det
8	joke	joke	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 take	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	learn	must	That						vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	take	to-infinitive	That not said here	a joke					vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent joke=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

That the protagonist should keep her temper

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 protagonist	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 protagonist	det
3	protagonist	protagonist	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 keep	nsubj
4	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 keep	aux
5	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 temper	nmod:poss
7	temper	temper	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 keep	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	should	that protagonist	protagonist's temper					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent temper=Theme
2	temper		protagonist						nom temper «feeling transitive»: poss=agent

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/9-alice-ch5-part1-advice-from-a-caterpillar/e2/