Exam question 1 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, Snow-White: the queen's poisoned appl…

Which sequence correctly describes the queen's three attempts upon Snow-White's life in the tale?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: queen · What happens: sequence, describe, attempt · To what, where: three attempts

This is exam question 1 of lesson 106 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, Snow-White: the queen's poisoned apple, the glass coffin and the prince's wedding» 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.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	2 sequence	nsubj
2	sequence	sequence	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	correctly	correctly	ADV	_	4 describes	advmod
4	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 sequence	advcl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 queen	det
6	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 attempts	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 queen	case
8	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 attempts	nummod
9	attempts	attempt	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 describes	obj
10	upon	upon	ADP	_	15 life	case
11	Snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 life	compound
12	-	-	PUNCT	_	11 Snow	punct
13	White	White	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 life	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 White	case
15	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 attempts	nmod
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 tale	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 tale	det
18	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 life	nmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 sequence	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	sequence	present				tree rules
2	describe	present		the queen's three attempts	upon White's Snow life in the tale; correctly property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent attempt=Theme
3	attempt		the queen		upon White's Snow life in the tale	nom attempt «act transitive»: poss=agent upon=obl

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

Laces, then a poisoned comb, then an apple, and then a poisoned pear

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Laces	lace	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 comb	punct
3	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	6 comb	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 comb	det
5	poisoned	poison	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 comb	amod
6	comb	comb	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Laces	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 apple	punct
8	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	10 apple	advmod
9	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 apple	det
10	apple	apple	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Laces	conj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 pear	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 pear	cc
13	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	16 pear	advmod
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 pear	det
15	poisoned	poison	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 pear	amod
16	pear	pear	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Laces	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	poison	participle							vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	poison	participle							vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

A comb, laces, then a poisoned apple

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 comb	det
2	comb	comb	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 laces	punct
4	laces	lace	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 comb	conj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 apple	punct
6	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	9 apple	advmod
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 apple	det
8	poisoned	poison	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 apple	amod
9	apple	apple	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 comb	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	poison	participle							vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Laces, then a poisoned comb, then a poisoned apple, then a glass coffin

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Laces	lace	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 comb	punct
3	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	6 comb	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 comb	det
5	poisoned	poison	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 comb	amod
6	comb	comb	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Laces	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 apple	punct
8	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	11 apple	advmod
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 apple	det
10	poisoned	poison	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 apple	amod
11	apple	apple	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Laces	conj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 coffin	punct
13	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	16 coffin	advmod
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 coffin	det
15	glass	glass	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 coffin	compound
16	coffin	coffin	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Laces	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	poison	participle							vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	poison	participle							vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Laces, then a poisoned comb, then an apple

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Laces	lace	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 comb	punct
3	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	6 comb	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 comb	det
5	poisoned	poison	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 comb	amod
6	comb	comb	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Laces	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 apple	punct
8	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	10 apple	advmod
9	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 apple	det
10	apple	apple	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Laces	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	poison	participle							vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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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