Exam question 4 · Russian Fairy Tales, The Old Man Who Went to School: an ol…

What did the people of the village say regarding the education of the old man in the concluding passage?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: people · What happens: do, say, regard, educate · To what, where: old man · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1124 «Russian Fairy Tales, The Old Man Who Went to School: an old man is sent to school, a nobleman gives him a purse, and his sons are tricked» 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	2 did	nsubj
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 people	det
4	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 say	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 village	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 village	det
7	village	village	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 people	nmod
8	say	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 did	parataxis
9	regarding	regard	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 education	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 education	det
11	education	education	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 say	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 man	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 man	det
14	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 man	amod
15	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 education	nmod
16	in	in	ADP	_	19 passage	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 passage	det
18	concluding	concluding	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 passage	compound
19	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 man	nmod
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	past				vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	say speech: assert	present	the people of the village		regard the education of the old man in the concluding passage	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	regard	gerund				vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	educate			the old man in the concluding passage		nom education «act transitive»: of=patient

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

he had learned some letters at last

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 learned	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 learned	aux
3	learned	learn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	5 letters	det
5	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 learned	obj
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 last	case
7	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 learned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	learn	past · perfect	he	some letters		last			vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Topic

Option 2

he learned nothing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 learned	nsubj
2	learned	learn	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 learned	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	learn	past	he	nothing					vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic

Option 3

he learned his letters at school now

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 learned	nsubj
2	learned	learn	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 letters	nmod:poss
4	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 learned	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 school	case
6	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 learned	obl
7	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	2 learned	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	learn	past	he	his letters		school	now		vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Topic
2	letter		his = he						nom letter «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

"he learned something at school after all"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 learned	punct
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 learned	nsubj
3	learned	learn	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	something	something	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	3 learned	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 school	case
6	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 learned	obl
7	after	after	ADP	_	8 all	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	3 learned	obl
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 learned	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	learn in a quote	past	he	something		school	after all		vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Topic

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/1124-pg29672-part30/e4/