Exam question 1 · Perrault's Tales, Little Thumb, part 13: lost again, birds…

Which of the following best describes the mechanism by which the children's trail of bread was rendered useless?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mechanism · What happens: follow, describe, render · To what, where: mechanism, trail

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1088 «Perrault's Tales, Little Thumb, part 13: lost again, birds eat the bread, a storm in the night» 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	6 describes	obj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 best	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 best	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 best	case
5	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 describes	nmod
6	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 mechanism	det
8	mechanism	mechanism	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 describes	obj
9	by	by	ADP	_	10 which	case
10	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	18 rendered	obl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 children	det
12	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 trail	nmod:poss
13	's	's	PART	_	12 children	case
14	trail	trail	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 rendered	nsubj:pass
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 bread	case
16	bread	bread	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 trail	nmod
17	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 rendered	aux:pass
18	rendered	render	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 mechanism	acl:relcl
19	useless	useless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 rendered	xcomp
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present		the mechanism	of the best	tree rules
3	render	past · passive	the mechanism	the children's trail of bread	useless property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

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

Wind blew the crumbs away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wind	wind	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 blew	nsubj
2	blew	blow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 crumbs	det
4	crumbs	crumb	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 blew	obj
5	away	away	ADV	_	2 blew	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	blow away	past	Wind	the crumbs				away property	vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent crumb=Patient

Option 2

Rain washed it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 washed	nsubj
2	washed	wash	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 washed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wash	past	Rain	it					vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient

Option 3

Birds ate it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 ate	nsubj
2	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 ate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	past	Birds	it					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Birds consumed the bread entirely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 consumed	nsubj
2	consumed	consume	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 bread	det
4	bread	bread	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 consumed	obj
5	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	2 consumed	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	past	Birds	the bread				entirely property	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bread=Asset

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/books/1088-pg29021-part13/e1/