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Test 10 · ★ · Reading a story: characters, plot and setting

«the wee boy's a right numpty, he keeps losing his shoes». Why might an author make a character keep making the same mistake?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: wee boy, right numpty, author, character · What happens: be, keep, lose, make · To what, where: right numpty, shoes, same mistake

This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 22 «Reading a story: characters, plot and setting» of the English course of Mova's primary school. 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

Sentence 1: «the wee boy's a right numpty, he keeps losing his shoes».

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	8 numpty	punct
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 boy	det
3	wee	wee	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 boy	amod
4	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 numpty	nsubj
5	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 numpty	cop
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 numpty	det
7	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 numpty	amod
8	numpty	numpty	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 keeps	nsubj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 numpty	punct
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 keeps	nsubj
11	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	losing	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 keeps	xcomp
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 shoes	nmod:poss
14	shoes	shoe	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 losing	obj
15	»	»	PUNCT	_	12 losing	punct
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	11 keeps	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a in a quote	present	the wee boy	a right numpty					tree rules
2	keep in a quote	present	a right numpty						tree rules
3	lose in a quote	gerund	a right numpty not said here	numpty's shoes					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shoe=Eventuality

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.

Sentence 2: Why might an author make a character keep making the same mistake?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	5 make	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 make	aux
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 author	det
4	author	author	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 make	nsubj
5	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 character	det
7	character	character	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 keep	nsubj
8	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 make	parataxis
9	making	make	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 keep	xcomp
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 mistake	det
11	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 mistake	amod
12	mistake	mistake	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 making	obj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 make	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	might	a author						vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
2	keep	present	a character						tree rules
3	make	gerund	a character not said here	the same mistake					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset mistake=Product

The options

Option 1

Because the author forgot what happened earlier

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 forgot	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 author	det
3	author	author	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 forgot	nsubj
4	forgot	forget	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	6 happened	nsubj
6	happened	happen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 forgot	ccomp
7	earlier	early	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 happened	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forget	past	the author						tree rules
2	happen	past						early property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

For humour, or to show him change later

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	For	for	ADP	_	2 humour	case
2	humour	humour	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 show	obl
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 show	punct
4	or	or	CCONJ	_	6 show	cc
5	to	to	PART	_	6 show	mark
6	show	show	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 show	iobj
8	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 show	xcomp
9	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	8 change	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	to-infinitive			him = he			for humour	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic
2	change	infinitive						late property	vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

To make the book shorter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 make	mark
2	make	make	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 book	det
4	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 make	obj
5	shorter	short	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 make	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	to-infinitive		the book				short property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset book=Product

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

To teach readers to lose shoes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 teach	mark
2	teach	teach	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	readers	reader	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 teach	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 lose	mark
5	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 teach	xcomp
6	shoes	shoe	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 lose	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	teach speech: other	to-infinitive		readers					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent reader=Recipient clause=Topic
2	lose	to-infinitive	readers not said here	shoes					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shoe=Eventuality

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/t10/