Exam question 3 · Andersen's Tales, Everything in Its Right Place, part 170:…

By what means did the nobleman's conduct, as recounted by the tutor, express a virtue?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: nobleman · What happens: mean, do, recount, express, conduct · To what, where: conduct, virtue

This is exam question 3 of lesson 959 «Andersen's Tales, Everything in Its Right Place, part 170: the old willow, the flute and the proud party» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 did	obj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 nobleman	det
6	nobleman	nobleman	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 conduct	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 nobleman	case
8	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 recounted	punct
10	as	as	SCONJ	_	11 recounted	mark
11	recounted	recount	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 did	conj
12	by	by	ADP	_	14 tutor	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 tutor	det
14	tutor	tutor	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 recounted	obl
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 express	punct
16	express	express	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 recounted	conj
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 virtue	det
18	virtue	virtue	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 express	obj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	do	past		the nobleman's conduct		tree rules
3	recount speech: other	participle			by the tutor	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	express	infinitive		a virtue		vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent virtue=Theme
5	conduct		the nobleman			nom conduct «act transitive»: 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 · ← Mova's choice

By sending a servant instead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 sending	mark
2	sending	send	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 servant	det
4	servant	servant	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sending	obj
5	instead	instead	ADV	_	2 sending	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send	gerund		a servant				instead property	vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent servant=Theme

Option 2

By inviting her to dine

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 inviting	mark
2	inviting	invite	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 inviting	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 dine	mark
5	dine	dine	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 inviting	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	invite	gerund		her = she					vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic
2	dine not said to happen	to-infinitive	her = she not said here						vn dine-39.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By sparing an old woman the troublesome walk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 sparing	mark
2	sparing	spare	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 woman	det
4	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 woman	amod
5	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sparing	obj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 walk	det
7	troublesome	troublesome	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 walk	amod
8	walk	walk	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sparing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spare	gerund			a old woman				vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent woman=Recipient walk=Asset

Option 4

By sparing an old woman the troublesome walk up the long stairs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 sparing	mark
2	sparing	spare	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 walk	nsubj
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 woman	det
4	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 woman	amod
5	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sparing	obj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 troublesome	det
7	troublesome	troublesome	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 sparing	parataxis
8	walk	walk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	up	up	ADP	_	8 walk	compound:prt
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 stairs	det
11	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 stairs	amod
12	stairs	stair	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 walk	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spare	gerund		a old woman					vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent woman=Asset
2	walk up	present		the long stairs					vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «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/959-pg27200-part170/e3/