Exam question 4 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Man, part 188: a thaw com…

Which of the following statements correctly characterises the closing change in the weather observed by the narrator?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, observe · To what, where: closing change, weather

This is exam question 4 of lesson 977 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Man, part 188: a thaw comes, and the Snow Man longs for the stove» 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 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Which	nmod
6	correctly	correctly	ADV	_	7 characterises	advmod
7	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 change	det
9	closing	closing	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 change	compound
10	change	change	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 weather	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 weather	det
13	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 change	nmod
14	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 weather	acl
15	by	by	ADP	_	17 narrator	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 narrator	det
17	narrator	narrator	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 observed	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	the closing change	the weather	correctly property	tree rules
3	observe	participle	the weather not said here		by the narrator	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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 · ← Mova's choice

a thaw began to set in over the whole garden

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 thaw	det
2	thaw	thaw	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 began	nsubj
3	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 set	mark
5	set	set	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 began	xcomp
6	in	in	ADV	_	5 set	advmod
7	over	over	ADP	_	10 garden	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 garden	det
9	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 garden	amod
10	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 set	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	begin	past	a thaw						vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	set in	to-infinitive	a thaw not said here			the whole garden			vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent over garden=Destination

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

a thaw began to set in

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 thaw	det
2	thaw	thaw	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 began	nsubj
3	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 set	mark
5	set	set	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 began	xcomp
6	in	in	ADP	_	5 set	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	begin	past	a thaw						vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	set in	to-infinitive	a thaw not said here						vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3

the frost grew harder

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 frost	det
2	frost	frost	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grew	nsubj
3	grew	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	harder	hard	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 grew	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	past	the frost					hard property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

a warm summer breeze came and the snow vanished completely from the valley

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 breeze	det
2	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 breeze	amod
3	summer	summer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 breeze	compound
4	breeze	breeze	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 came	nsubj
5	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 vanished	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 snow	det
8	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 vanished	nsubj
9	vanished	vanish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 came	conj
10	completely	completely	ADV	_	9 vanished	advmod
11	from	from	ADP	_	13 valley	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 valley	det
13	valley	valley	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 vanished	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past	a warm summer breeze						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	vanish	past	the snow			the valley		completely property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme from valley=Initial_Location

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/977-pg27200-part188/e4/