Exam question 3 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Saucy Boy, part 1: a stormy ni…

To what cause did the learned man from the northern regions attribute his wasting strength?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: learn, attribute · To what, where: wasting strength

This is exam question 3 of lesson 970 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Saucy Boy, part 1: a stormy night, a wet boy named Cupid, a shot straight to the poet's heart» 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	To	to	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 attribute	obl
3	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	nsubj
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 attribute	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 man	det
6	learned	learn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 man	amod
7	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
8	from	from	ADP	_	11 regions	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 regions	det
10	northern	northern	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 regions	amod
11	regions	region	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 did	obl
12	attribute	attribute	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 strength	nmod:poss
14	wasting	wasting	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 strength	compound
15	strength	strength	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 attribute	obj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	12 attribute	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	learn	participle							vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	attribute	past · do-support		cause's wasting strength					tree rules

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

Long journeys through the snow and freezing winds of the north

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 journeys	amod
2	journeys	journey	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	through	through	ADP	_	5 snow	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 snow	det
5	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 journeys	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 winds	cc
7	freezing	freeze	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 winds	amod
8	winds	wind	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 journeys	conj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 north	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 north	det
11	north	north	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 winds	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	freeze	gerund							vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	wind			the north					nom wind «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The unbearable heat of the sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 heat	det
2	unbearable	unbearable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 heat	amod
3	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 sun	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sun	det
6	sun	sun	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 heat	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	heat		the sun						nom heat «phenomenon intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3

Years of working in the dark mines beneath the hills

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 working	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	3 working	mark
3	working	work	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	7 mines	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 mines	det
6	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 mines	compound
7	mines	mine	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 working	obl
8	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	10 hills	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 hills	det
10	hills	hill	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 mines	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	gerund	Years					in the dark mines beneath the hills	vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in mine=Theme

Option 4

The bitter cold of winter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 cold	det
2	bitter	bitter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 cold	amod
3	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 winter	case
5	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 cold	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/970-pg27200-part181/e3/