Exam question 4 · Andersen tales, The Snow Queen, part 1: the Snow Man melts…

By what means did the grandmother describe the Snow Queen's nightly movements?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Snow Queen · What happens: mean, do, describe, move · To what, where: grandmother, nightly movements · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 978 «Andersen tales, The Snow Queen, part 1: the Snow Man melts, the mirror shatters, Kay and Gerda meet» 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	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 describe	advcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 grandmother	det
6	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
7	describe	describe	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Queen	det
9	Snow	Snow	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Queen	compound
10	Queen	Queen	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 movements	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 Queen	case
12	nightly	nightly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 movements	amod
13	movements	movement	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 describe	obj
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 describe	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past		the grandmother	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grandmother=Eventuality
3	describe	imperative	you not said here	the Snow Queen's nightly movements	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent movement=Theme
4	move		the Snow Queen		nom movement «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

by showing a picture of her in the sky

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 showing	mark
2	showing	show	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 picture	det
4	picture	picture	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 showing	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 her	case
6	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 picture	nmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 sky	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sky	det
9	sky	sky	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 showing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	gerund		a picture of her				in the sky	vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent picture=Patient in sky=Topic

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

by describing her flight through the streets

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 describing	mark
2	describing	describe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 flight	nmod:poss
4	flight	flight	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 describing	obj
5	through	through	ADP	_	7 streets	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 streets	det
7	streets	street	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 describing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	gerund		her flight		the streets			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent flight=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

by telling a story about her path

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 telling	mark
2	telling	tell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 story	det
4	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 telling	obj
5	about	about	ADP	_	7 path	case
6	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 path	nmod:poss
7	path	path	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 story	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	gerund		a story				about her path	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent story=Recipient about path=Topic

Option 4

by describing in great detail her flight through the streets at night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 describing	mark
2	describing	describe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 detail	case
4	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 detail	amod
5	detail	detail	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 describing	obl
6	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 flight	nmod:poss
7	flight	flight	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 detail	appos
8	through	through	ADP	_	10 streets	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 streets	det
10	streets	street	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 describing	obl
11	at	at	ADP	_	12 night	case
12	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 describing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	gerund				great detail	night	through the streets	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: 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/978-pg27200-part189/e4/