Exam question 3 · Andersen's Tales, The Story of a Mother, part 206: a mothe…

What is the significance, within the hothouse, of an individual plant's withering?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: individual plant · What happens: be, wither · To what, where: significance

This is exam question 3 of lesson 995 «Andersen's Tales, The Story of a Mother, part 206: a mother follows Death and pays a price» 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	4 significance	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 significance	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 significance	det
4	significance	significance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 hothouse	punct
6	within	within	ADP	_	8 hothouse	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 hothouse	det
8	hothouse	hothouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 significance	conj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 withering	punct
10	of	of	ADP	_	15 withering	case
11	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 plant	det
12	individual	individual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 plant	amod
13	plant	plant	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 withering	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 plant	case
15	withering	withering	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 significance	conj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 significance	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present		the significance and the hothouse and a individual plant's withering					tree rules
2	wither		a individual plant						nom withering «event intransitive»: 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

It means the plant needs more water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 means	nsubj
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 plant	det
4	plant	plant	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 needs	nsubj
5	needs	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 means	ccomp
6	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	7 water	amod
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 needs	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	need	present	the plant	more water					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot water=Theme

Option 2

It shows the gardener is growing tired

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 shows	nsubj
2	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 gardener	det
4	gardener	gardener	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 growing	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 growing	aux
6	growing	grow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 shows	ccomp
7	tired	tired	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 growing	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	It						vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	grow	present · progressive	the gardener					tired property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

It marks a warning from the old woman

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 marks	nsubj
2	marks	mark	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 warning	det
4	warning	warning	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 marks	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	8 woman	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 woman	det
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 woman	amod
8	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 warning	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mark	present	It	a warning				from the old woman	vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent warning=Destination

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It signifies the ending of a human life

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 signifies	nsubj
2	signifies	signify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 ending	det
4	ending	ending	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 signifies	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 life	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 life	det
7	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 life	amod
8	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ending	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	signify	present	It	the ending of a human life					vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot ending=Theme
2	end			a human life					nom ending «communication transitive»: of=patient

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/995-pg27200-part206/e3/