Exam question 1 · Andersen's Tales, The Porter's Son, part 1: a singing-bird…

Which of the following was the cause of the death of the little singing-bird?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: little singing bird · What happens: follow, be, die

This is exam question 1 of lesson 943 «Andersen's Tales, The Porter's Son, part 1: a singing-bird dies, and a porter's boy saves a nursery from fire» 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 cause	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	7 cause	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 cause	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 cause	case
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 cause	cop
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 cause	det
7	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 death	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 death	det
10	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 cause	nmod
11	of	of	ADP	_	16 bird	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 bird	det
13	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 bird	amod
14	singing	singing	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 bird	compound
15	-	-	PUNCT	_	14 singing	punct
16	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 death	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 cause	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is	past		of the cause; of the death of the little singing bird	tree rules
3	die		the little singing bird		nom death «event intransitive»: of=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

the blow delivered by the Portuguese duck while the cock watched from the wall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 blow	det
2	blow	blow	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 watched	nsubj
3	delivered	deliver	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 blow	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 duck	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 duck	det
6	Portuguese	Portuguese	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 duck	compound
7	duck	duck	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 delivered	obl
8	while	while	SCONJ	_	10 cock	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 cock	det
10	cock	cock	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 delivered	advcl
11	watched	watch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	from	from	ADP	_	14 wall	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 wall	det
14	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 watched	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deliver	participle		the blow not said here				by the Portuguese duck	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	watch	past	the blow			the wall			vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent

Option 2

the blow delivered by the Portuguese duck's wing in the yard

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 blow	det
2	blow	blow	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	delivered	deliver	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 blow	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	9 wing	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 duck	det
6	Portuguese	portuguese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 duck	amod
7	duck	duck	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 wing	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 duck	case
9	wing	wing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 delivered	obl
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 yard	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 yard	det
12	yard	yard	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 delivered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deliver	participle		the blow not said here				by the Portuguese duck's wing; in the yard	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

the blow delivered by the Portuguese duck

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 blow	det
2	blow	blow	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	delivered	deliver	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 blow	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 duck	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 duck	det
6	Portuguese	portuguese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 duck	amod
7	duck	duck	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 delivered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deliver	participle		the blow not said here				by the Portuguese duck	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

the peck delivered by the old white goose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 peck	det
2	peck	peck	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	delivered	deliver	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 peck	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	8 goose	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 goose	det
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 goose	amod
7	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 goose	amod
8	goose	goose	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 delivered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deliver	participle		the peck not said here				by the old white goose	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=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/943-pg27200-part154/e1/