Exam question 3 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Thistle's Experiences, part 20…

Explain why the Ass is unable to consume the thistle, with reference to the text.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Ass · What happens: explain, be, consume · To what, where: thistle · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 998 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Thistle's Experiences, part 209: a prince leaves a proud princess, and a thistle dreams of glory» 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	Explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	6 unable	advmod
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Ass	det
4	Ass	ass	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 unable	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 unable	cop
6	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Explain	ccomp
7	to	to	PART	_	8 consume	mark
8	consume	consume	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 unable	xcomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 thistle	det
10	thistle	thistle	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 consume	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 reference	punct
12	with	with	ADP	_	13 reference	case
13	reference	reference	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 consume	obl
14	to	to	ADP	_	16 text	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 text	det
16	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 reference	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	imperative	you not said here			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	the Ass		unable property	tree rules
3	consume	to-infinitive	the Ass not said here	the thistle	with reference to the text	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thistle=Asset

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 halter is far too short, and the thistle is also guarded by the palings and the gate

The tree, 18 words

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 halter	nmod:poss
2	halter	halter	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 short	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 short	cop
4	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 short	advmod
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 short	advmod
6	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 guarded	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 guarded	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 thistle	det
10	thistle	thistle	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 guarded	nsubj:pass
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 guarded	aux:pass
12	also	also	ADV	_	13 guarded	advmod
13	guarded	guard	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 short	conj
14	by	by	ADP	_	16 palings	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 palings	det
16	palings	paling	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 guarded	obl
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 gate	cc
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 gate	det
19	gate	gate	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 palings	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	His halter					far, short property	tree rules
2	guard	present · passive	the palings and the gate	the thistle					vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Beneficiary

Option 2

The thistle grew on the far side of him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 thistle	det
2	thistle	thistle	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grew	nsubj
3	grew	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	on	on	ADP	_	7 side	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 side	det
6	far	far	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 side	amod
7	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grew	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 him	case
9	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 side	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	past	the thistle			the far side of him			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on side=Location

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He is insufficiently strong to pull the palings down, and his halter cannot stretch to reach the plant at all

The tree, 21 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	4 strong	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 strong	cop
3	insufficiently	insufficiently	ADV	_	4 strong	advmod
4	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 pull	mark
6	pull	pull	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 strong	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 palings	det
8	palings	paling	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 pull	obj
9	down	down	ADP	_	6 pull	compound:prt
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 stretch	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 stretch	cc
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 halter	nmod:poss
13	halter	halter	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 stretch	nsubj
14	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 stretch	aux
15	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 stretch	advmod
16	stretch	stretch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 strong	conj
17	to	to	PART	_	18 reach	mark
18	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 stretch	xcomp
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 plant	det
20	plant	plant	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 reach	obj
21	at	at	ADP	_	22 all	case
22	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	18 reach	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	He			insufficiently, strong property	tree rules
2	pull down	to-infinitive	He not said here	the palings			vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent paling=Theme
3	not stretch	can	his halter				tree rules
4	reach	to-infinitive	his halter not said here	the plant	all		vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent plant=Theme at all=Asset

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

His halter is insufficiently long to reach it

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 halter	nmod:poss
2	halter	halter	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 long	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 long	cop
4	insufficiently	insufficiently	ADV	_	5 long	advmod
5	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 reach	mark
7	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 long	advcl
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 reach	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	His halter					insufficiently, long property	tree rules
2	reach	to-infinitive	His halter not said here	halter					vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent it=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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