Exam question 1 · Andersen's Tales, The Old Church Bell: a cracked bell is s…

What was the principal cause of the bell's removal from its tower?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · What happens: be, remove · To what, where: principal cause, bell, tower

This is exam question 1 of lesson 919 «Andersen's Tales, The Old Church Bell: a cracked bell is sold, melted, and cast into a statue of a poet» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	5 cause	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 cause	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cause	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cause	amod
5	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	10 removal	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 bell	det
8	bell	bell	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 removal	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 bell	case
10	removal	removal	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cause	nmod
11	from	from	ADP	_	13 tower	case
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 tower	nmod:poss
13	tower	tower	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 removal	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 cause	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal cause				of the bell's removal from removal's tower	tree rules
2	remove			the bell		removal's tower			nom removal «act transitive»: poss=patient from=place

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

A crack that prevented it from chiming and the council's decision to sell it

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 crack	det
2	crack	crack	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 prevented	nsubj
3	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 prevented	nsubj
4	prevented	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 prevented	obj
6	from	from	SCONJ	_	7 chiming	mark
7	chiming	chime	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 prevented	advcl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 decision	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 council	det
10	council	council	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 decision	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 council	case
12	decision	decision	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 chiming	conj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 sell	mark
14	sell	sell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 chiming	advcl
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 sell	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	prevent	past	a crack	it	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer it=Theme
2	chime	gerund	a crack not said here		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	sell	to-infinitive	a crack not said here	crack	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
4	decide		the council		nom decision «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

The town council decided to sell it because a crack prevented it from chiming at all

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 council	det
2	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 council	compound
3	council	council	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 decided	nsubj
4	decided	decide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 sell	mark
6	sell	sell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 decided	xcomp
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 sell	obj
8	because	because	SCONJ	_	11 prevented	mark
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 crack	det
10	crack	crack	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 prevented	nsubj
11	prevented	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 decided	advcl
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 prevented	obj
13	from	from	SCONJ	_	14 chiming	mark
14	chiming	chime	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 prevented	advcl
15	at	at	ADP	_	16 all	case
16	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	14 chiming	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	decide	past	the town council			vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	sell not said to happen	to-infinitive	the town council not said here	council		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
3	prevent	past	a crack	council		vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer it=Theme
4	chime	gerund	a crack not said here		all	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at all=Location

Option 3

Rust that weakened the iron frame

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Rust	rust	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	3 weakened	nsubj
3	weakened	weaken	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Rust	acl:relcl
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 frame	det
5	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 frame	compound
6	frame	frame	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 weakened	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	weaken	past	Rust	the iron frame					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent frame=Patient

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

A crack that prevented it from chiming

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 crack	det
2	crack	crack	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 prevented	nsubj
4	prevented	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 crack	acl:relcl
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 prevented	obj
6	from	from	SCONJ	_	7 chiming	mark
7	chiming	chime	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 prevented	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	past	a crack	crack					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer it=Theme
2	chime	gerund	a crack not said here						vn sound_emission-43.2 «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/919-pg27200-part130/e1/