Exam question 2 · Andersen's Tales, The Story of a Mother: Death carries off…

Which statement most accurately describes Death's reasoning when he refuses to let her destroy the flowers?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: statement, Death · What happens: describe, refuse, not let, destroy, reason · To what, where: reasoning, Death, flowers

This is exam question 2 of lesson 996 «Andersen's Tales, The Story of a Mother: Death carries off the child» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 statement	det
2	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 describes	nsubj
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 accurately	advmod
4	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	5 describes	advmod
5	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	Death	Death	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 reasoning	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 Death	case
8	reasoning	reasoning	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 describes	obj
9	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	11 refuses	advmod
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 refuses	nsubj
11	refuses	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 describes	advcl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 let	mark
13	let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 refuses	xcomp
14	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 let	obj
15	destroy	destroy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 let	xcomp
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 flowers	det
17	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 destroy	obj
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	describe	present	which statement	Death's reasoning	accurately property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reasoning=Theme
2	refuse	present	statement			vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	not let	to-infinitive	statement not said here	Death		tree rules
4	destroy	infinitive	Death not said here	the flowers		vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flower=Patient
5	reason		Death			nom reasoning «cognition 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

Other mothers would also grieve the same

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 mothers	amod
2	mothers	mother	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 grieve	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 grieve	aux
4	also	also	ADV	_	5 grieve	advmod
5	grieve	grieve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 same	det
7	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 grieve	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grieve	would	Other mothers	the same					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus same=Experiencer

Option 2

Another mother would suffer as she does, and so he must let each flower live its appointed life

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	2 mother	det
2	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 suffer	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 suffer	aux
4	suffer	suffer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	as	as	SCONJ	_	7 does	mark
6	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 does	nsubj
7	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 suffer	advcl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 let	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 let	cc
10	so	so	ADV	_	13 let	advmod
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 let	nsubj
12	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 let	aux
13	let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 suffer	conj
14	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	15 flower	det
15	flower	flower	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 live	nsubj
16	live	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 let	ccomp
17	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 life	nmod:poss
18	appointed	appoint	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	19 life	amod
19	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 live	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	suffer	would	another mother		vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	do	present	mother		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	let	must	he		tree rules
4	live	present	each flower	flower's appointed life	vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme life=Location
5	appoint	participle			vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Another mother would suffer as she does

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	2 mother	det
2	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 suffer	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 suffer	aux
4	suffer	suffer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	as	as	SCONJ	_	7 does	mark
6	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 does	nsubj
7	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 suffer	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	suffer	would	another mother						vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	do	present	mother						vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

He is bound by God's law and cannot allow any flower to be destroyed by a grieving human

The tree, 20 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 bound	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 bound	aux:pass
3	bound	bind	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 law	case
5	God	God	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 law	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 God	case
7	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bound	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 allow	cc
9	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 allow	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 allow	advmod
11	allow	allow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 bound	conj
12	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	13 flower	det
13	flower	flower	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 allow	obj
14	to	to	PART	_	16 destroyed	mark
15	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	16 destroyed	aux:pass
16	destroyed	destroy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 flower	acl
17	by	by	ADP	_	20 human	case
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	20 human	det
19	grieving	grieve	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	20 human	amod
20	human	human	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 destroyed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	bind	present · passive	God's law	He	vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	not allow	can	God's law not said here	any flower	vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flower=Beneficiary
3	destroy	to-infinitive · passive	a grieving human	any flower not said here	vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	grieve	gerund			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

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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