Exam question 2 · Reading a story: characters, plot and setting

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the setting of a narrative?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: setting

This is exam question 2 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 setting	det
10	setting	setting	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 narrative	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 narrative	det
13	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 setting	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the setting of a narrative				of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules

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

The author's name

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 author	det
2	author	author	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 name	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 author	case
4	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	name		the author						nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

The moral, or lesson, which the reader is intended to draw from the narrative

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 moral	det
2	moral	moral	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 lesson	punct
4	or	or	CCONJ	_	5 lesson	cc
5	lesson	lesson	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 moral	appos
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 intended	punct
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 intended	nsubj:pass
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 reader	det
9	reader	reader	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 intended	nsubj:pass
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 intended	aux:pass
11	intended	intend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 moral	acl:relcl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 draw	mark
13	draw	draw	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 intended	xcomp
14	from	from	ADP	_	16 narrative	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 narrative	det
16	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 draw	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	intend	present · passive		the moral					tree rules
2	draw not said to happen	to-infinitive						from the narrative	vn split-23.2 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient from narrative=Co-Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The place and time in which the events occur

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 place	det
2	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 time	cc
4	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 place	conj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 occur	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 events	det
8	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 occur	nsubj
9	occur	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 place	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occur	present	the events			the place and time			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in which=Location

Option 4

The sequence of events

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sequence	det
2	sequence	sequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 events	case
4	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 sequence	nmod

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/e2/