Exam question 4 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shadow: the shadow wins the pr…

What is the principal characteristic of the china chimney-sweep, as described in the closing passage?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: principal characteristic · What happens: be, describe · To what, where: china chimney sweep, closing passage

This is exam question 4 of lesson 973 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shadow: the shadow wins the princess, the learned man is executed» 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	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 characteristic	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 characteristic	amod
5	characteristic	characteristic	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	of	of	ADP	_	11 sweep	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 sweep	det
8	china	china	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 sweep	amod
9	chimney	chimney	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 sweep	compound
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 chimney	punct
11	sweep	sweep	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 characteristic	nmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 described	punct
13	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 described	mark
14	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 sweep	acl
15	in	in	ADP	_	18 passage	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 passage	det
17	closing	closing	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 passage	compound
18	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 described	obl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the principal characteristic of the china chimney sweep						tree rules
2	describe	participle		the china chimney sweep not said here		the closing passage			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=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

His face is black

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 face	nmod:poss
2	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 black	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 black	cop
4	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	His face					black property	tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

His clothes are plain and his shoes worn

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 clothes	nmod:poss
2	clothes	clothes	NOUN	Number=Ptan	4 plain	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 plain	cop
4	plain	plain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 shoes	cc
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 shoes	nmod:poss
7	shoes	shoe	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 plain	conj
8	worn	wear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 shoes	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	His clothes					plain property	tree rules
2	wear	participle		his shoes not said here					vn wipe_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

His face is fair and rosy, contrary to his trade

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 face	nmod:poss
2	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fair	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 fair	cop
4	fair	fair	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 rosy	cc
6	rosy	rosy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 fair	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 contrary	punct
8	contrary	contrary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 fair	conj
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 trade	case
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 trade	nmod:poss
11	trade	trade	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 contrary	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	His face	fair property	tree rules
2	be		His face not said here		tree rules
3	be		His face not said here	to his trade	tree rules
4	trade		his = he		nom trade «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

His hat is tall and his coat is torn

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 hat	nmod:poss
2	hat	hat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 tall	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 tall	cop
4	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 torn	cc
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 coat	nmod:poss
7	coat	coat	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 torn	nsubj:pass
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 torn	aux:pass
9	torn	tear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 tall	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	His hat					tall property	tree rules
2	tear	present · passive		his coat					vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=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.

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