Exam question 4 · Russian Fairy Tales, The Heifer, part 21: the golden slipp…

What purpose did the jester state for smearing the spot with pitch?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: purpose · What happens: do, smear · To what, where: jester state, spot

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1115 «Russian Fairy Tales, The Heifer, part 21: the golden slippers are left behind and the search begins» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 did	obj
2	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 state	det
5	jester	jester	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 state	compound
6	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obj
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	8 smearing	mark
8	smearing	smear	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 did	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 spot	det
10	spot	spot	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 smearing	obj
11	with	with	ADP	_	12 pitch	case
12	pitch	pitch	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 smearing	obl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	purpose	the jester state					tree rules
2	smear	gerund	purpose not said here	the spot				with pitch	vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent spot=Destination with pitch=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

To hide the stain from guests

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 hide	mark
2	hide	hide	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 stain	det
4	stain	stain	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hide	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 guests	case
6	guests	guest	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 hide	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	to-infinitive		the stain				from guests	vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent stain=Patient from guest=Beneficiary

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To make the slippers stick there

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 slippers	det
4	slippers	slipper	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 stick	nsubj
5	stick	stick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 make	ccomp
6	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	5 stick	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	to-infinitive							tree rules
2	stick	present	the slippers			there			vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 3

So that the Tsarevich would know exactly where to stand when he came back to the church again

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	So	so	ADV	_	10 stand	advmod
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 know	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Tsarevich	det
4	Tsarevich	Tsarevich	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 know	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 know	aux
6	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 stand	advcl
7	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	10 stand	advmod
8	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	10 stand	advmod
9	to	to	PART	_	10 stand	mark
10	stand	stand	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	13 came	advmod
12	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 came	nsubj
13	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 stand	advcl
14	back	back	ADV	_	13 came	advmod
15	to	to	ADP	_	17 church	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 church	det
17	church	church	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 came	obl
18	again	again	ADV	_	10 stand	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	when	other	roles by
1	know	would	the Tsarevich				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	stand	to-infinitive			again	exactly property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	come back	past	Tsarevich	the church			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to church=Initial_Location

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

To make sure the girl would be caught and brought before the Tsar and his councillors

The tree, 16 words

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	sure	sure	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 make	xcomp
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 girl	det
5	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 caught	nsubj:pass
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 caught	aux
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 caught	aux:pass
8	caught	catch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 sure	ccomp
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 brought	cc
10	brought	bring	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 caught	conj
11	before	before	ADP	_	13 Tsar	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 Tsar	det
13	Tsar	Tsar	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 brought	obl
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 councillors	cc
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 councillors	nmod:poss
16	councillors	councillor	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 Tsar	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	make	to-infinitive			sure property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
2	catch	would · passive	the girl			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
3	bring	participle		before the Tsar and his councillors		vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent before tsar=Destination

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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