Test 4 · Poetry: rhyme and rhythm

What would happen if you read "Faster than fairies, faster than witches" very slowly?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: happen, read

This is test 4 of lesson 45 «Poetry: rhyme and rhythm» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 read	mark
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 read	nsubj
6	read	read	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 Faster	punct
8	Faster	fast	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 read	advmod
9	than	than	ADP	_	10 fairies	case
10	fairies	fairy	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 Faster	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 faster	punct
12	faster	fast	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 happen	advmod
13	than	than	ADP	_	14 witches	case
14	witches	witch	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 faster	obl
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 slowly	punct
16	very	very	ADV	_	17 slowly	advmod
17	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	14 witches	advmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	read a condition, not said to happen	present	you						vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice

It would sound even faster than the train itself

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 sound	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 sound	aux
3	sound	sound	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	even	even	ADV	_	5 faster	advmod
5	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 sound	advmod
6	than	than	ADP	_	8 train	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 train	det
8	train	train	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 faster	obl
9	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Emp Reflex=Yes	8 train	nmod:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sound	would	It					fast property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus

Option 2

It would become free verse

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 become	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 become	aux
3	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	free	free	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 verse	amod
5	verse	verse	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	would	It	free verse					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It would lose the rushing feel of the train

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 lose	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 lose	aux
3	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 feel	det
5	rushing	rush	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 feel	amod
6	feel	feel	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lose	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 train	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 train	det
9	train	train	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 feel	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	lose	would	It	the rushing feel of the train	vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feel=Eventuality
2	rush	gerund			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	feel		the train		nom feel «cognition intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4

The rhymes would disappear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rhymes	det
2	rhymes	rhyme	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 disappear	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 disappear	aux
4	disappear	disappear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	disappear	would	the rhymes						vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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