Exam question 4 · Andersen's Tales, The Old Street Lamp: the lamp dreams it…

In what manner did the old woman express her delight in the travel book?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: old woman, woman · What happens: express, delight · To what, where: delight, manner

This is exam question 4 of lesson 925 «Andersen's Tales, The Old Street Lamp: the lamp dreams it will be melted down» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 express	obl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 express	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 woman	det
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 woman	amod
7	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 express	nsubj
8	express	express	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
9	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 delight	nmod:poss
10	delight	delight	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 express	obj
11	in	in	ADP	_	14 book	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 book	det
13	travel	travel	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 book	compound
14	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 express	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 express	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	express	past · do-support	the old woman	woman's delight		what manner		in the travel book	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent delight=Theme
2	delight		woman						nom delight «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 · ✓ the right answer

She professed she could almost imagine seeing it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 professed	nsubj
2	professed	profess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 imagine	nsubj
4	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 imagine	aux
5	almost	almost	ADV	_	6 imagine	advmod
6	imagine	imagine	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 professed	ccomp
7	seeing	see	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 imagine	xcomp
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 seeing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	profess	past	She			vn declare-29.4-1-1-2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	imagine	could	she		almost property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	see	gerund	she not said here	it		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus

Option 2

She professed she could almost imagine seeing the elephants herself

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 professed	nsubj
2	professed	profess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 imagine	nsubj
4	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 imagine	aux
5	almost	almost	ADV	_	6 imagine	advmod
6	imagine	imagine	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 professed	ccomp
7	seeing	see	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 imagine	xcomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 elephants	det
9	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 seeing	obj
10	herself	herself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	7 seeing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	profess	past	She			vn declare-29.4-1-1-2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	imagine	could	she		almost property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	see	gerund	she not said here	the elephants	herself = she obl	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer elephant=Stimulus

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

She declared the book was the finest she had ever read in all her life

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 declared	nsubj
2	declared	declare	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 book	det
4	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 finest	nsubj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 finest	cop
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 finest	det
7	finest	fine	ADJ	Degree=Sup	2 declared	advcl
8	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 read	nsubj
9	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 read	aux
10	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	11 read	advmod
11	read	read	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	7 finest	parataxis
12	in	in	ADP	_	15 life	case
13	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	15 life	det:predet
14	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 life	nmod:poss
15	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 read	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	when	other	roles by
1	declare speech: other	past	She				vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	the book			fine property	tree rules
3	read	past · perfect	she	her life	ever		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

She claimed she could almost taste it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 claimed	nsubj
2	claimed	claim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 taste	nsubj
4	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 taste	aux
5	almost	almost	ADV	_	6 taste	advmod
6	taste	taste	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 claimed	ccomp
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 taste	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	claim speech: other	past	She						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	taste	could	she	it				almost property	vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme it=Attribute

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/925-pg27200-part136/e4/