Exam question 1 · Reading a story: characters, plot and setting
Identify the principal trait demonstrated by a character who assists a hostile, hissing kitten.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, character · What happens: identify, demonstrate, assist, hiss · To what, where: principal trait, hostile, kitten
This is exam question 1 of lesson 22 «Reading a story: characters, plot and setting» of the English 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 | Identify | identify | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 trait | det |
| 3 | principal | principal | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 trait | amod |
| 4 | trait | trait | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Identify | obj |
| 5 | demonstrated | demonstrate | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 trait | acl |
| 6 | by | by | ADP | _ | 8 character | case |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 character | det |
| 8 | character | character | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 demonstrated | obl |
| 9 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 10 assists | nsubj |
| 10 | assists | assist | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 character | acl:relcl |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 hostile | det |
| 12 | hostile | hostile | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 assists | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 hissing | punct |
| 14 | hissing | hiss | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 10 assists | advcl |
| 15 | kitten | kitten | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 hissing | obj |
| 16 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Identify | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | identify | imperative | you not said here | the principal trait | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent trait=Theme | ||||
| 2 | demonstrate | participle | the principal trait not said here | by a character | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | assist | present | a character | a hostile | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hostile=Beneficiary | ||||
| 4 | hiss | gerund | a character not said here | kitten | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kitten=Topic |
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
Greed, in that she hoped to sell the animal for a sum of money
The tree, 14 words
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greed | greed | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 hoped | nsubj |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Greed | punct |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 4 that | case |
| 4 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 1 Greed | nmod |
| 5 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 hoped | nsubj |
| 6 | hoped | hope | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 8 sell | mark |
| 8 | sell | sell | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 hoped | xcomp |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 animal | det |
| 10 | animal | animal | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 sell | obj |
| 11 | for | for | ADP | _ | 13 sum | case |
| 12 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 13 sum | det |
| 13 | sum | sum | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 sell | obl |
| 14 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 money | case |
| 15 | money | money | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 sum | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hope | past | Greed in that | vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 2 | sell not said to happen | to-infinitive | Greed in that not said here | the animal | for a sum of money | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent animal=Theme for sum=Asset | |||
| 3 | sum | money | nom sum «possession transitive»: of=patient |
Option 2
Cowardice
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cowardice | cowardice | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
Kindness and patience
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kindness | kindness | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 3 patience | cc |
| 3 | patience | patience | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Kindness | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Indifference
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indifference | Indifference | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
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/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/e1/