Test 8 · ★ · Andersen's Tales, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, part 126: a…

Why did the clerks stick knives in their belts?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: clerks · What happens: stick · To what, where: knives, belts

This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 915 «Andersen's Tales, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, part 126: a silly pretend play, then the strange street of pepper clerks» of the books course of Mova's primary school. 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	5 stick	advmod
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 stick	aux
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 clerks	det
4	clerks	clerk	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 stick	nsubj
5	stick	stick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	knives	knife	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 stick	obj
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 belts	case
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 belts	nmod:poss
9	belts	belt	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 stick	obl
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 stick	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stick	past · do-support	the clerks	knives		clerks's belts			vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent knife=Theme in belt=Destination

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

For protection, since it was often needed in the dark streets

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	For	for	ADP	_	2 protection	case
2	protection	protection	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 needed	obl
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 protection	punct
4	since	since	SCONJ	_	8 needed	mark
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 needed	nsubj:pass
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 needed	aux:pass
7	often	often	ADV	_	8 needed	advmod
8	needed	need	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	in	in	ADP	_	12 streets	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 streets	det
11	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 streets	compound
12	streets	street	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 needed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	past · passive		protection		the dark streets		for protection; often property	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

To scare away the dogs in town

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 scare	mark
2	scare	scare	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	away	away	ADP	_	2 scare	compound:prt
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 dogs	det
5	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 scare	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 town	case
7	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 scare	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	scare away	to-infinitive		the dogs		town			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus dog=Experiencer

Option 3

For defence, since streets were rough

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	For	for	ADP	_	2 defence	case
2	defence	defence	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 rough	obl
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 defence	punct
4	since	since	ADP	_	5 streets	case
5	streets	street	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 rough	obl
6	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 rough	cop
7	rough	rough	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past					since streets	for defence; rough property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

For protection, it was often needed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	For	for	ADP	_	2 protection	case
2	protection	protection	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 needed	obl
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 protection	punct
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 needed	nsubj:pass
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 needed	aux:pass
6	often	often	ADV	_	7 needed	advmod
7	needed	need	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	past · passive		protection				for protection; often property	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: 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/915-pg27200-part126/t8/