---
title: By what phrase did the General formally express approval of the port… — Andersen's Tales, The Porter's Son, pa… · tree and pragmatics
description: By what phrase did the General formally express approval of the porter's son's drawings? Exam question 4 of lesson 943 «Andersen's Tales, The Porter's Son, part 1: a singing-bird dies, and a porter's boy saves a nursery from fire» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tre
---

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# Exam question 4 · Andersen's Tales, The Porter's Son, part 1: a singing-bird…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By what phrase did the General formally express approval of the porter's son's drawings?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** phrase, son · **What happens:** do, approve, draw · **To what, where:** General, drawings

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 4 of lesson 943 «Andersen's Tales, The Porter's Son, part 1: a singing-bird dies, and a porter's boy saves a nursery from fire» 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/943-pg27200-part154/#e4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:943-pg27200-part154:e4:1
# text = By what phrase did the General formally express approval of the porter's son's drawings?
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
3	phrase	phrase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	General	General	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	formally	formally	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	express	express	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	approval	approval	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	's	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	's	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	drawings	drawing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | phrase | the General |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **approve** |  |  | the porter's son's drawings |  |  |  |  | nom approval «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 3 | **draw** |  | the porter's son |  |  |  |  |  | nom drawing «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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 {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Charming, quite charming!"

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:943-pg27200-part154:e4:o1:1
# text = "Charming, quite charming!"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Charming	Charming	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	charming	charming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Charming!"

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:943-pg27200-part154:e4:o2:1
# text = "Charming!"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Charming	charming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Most charming, most charming indeed!"

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:943-pg27200-part154:e4:o3:1
# text = "Most charming, most charming indeed!"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	charming	charming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	nsubj	_	_
6	charming	charm	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **charm** *in a quote* | gerund | Most charming |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Wonderful!"

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:943-pg27200-part154:e4:o4:1
# text = "Wonderful!"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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**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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- ← previous: [Andersen's Tales, The Porter's Son, pa…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/943-pg27200-part154/e3/)
- next →: [Andersen tales, George and little Emil…, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/944-pg27200-part155/t1/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Tales, The Porter's Son, part 1: a singing-bird dies, and a porter's boy saves a nursery from fire](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/943-pg27200-part154/)