Exam question 4 · Jackal Tales, The Adventures of the Jackal's Eldest Son, p…

By what means did the jackal procure the butter from the farmhouse?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: jackal · What happens: mean, procure · To what, where: butter, farmhouse

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1164 «Jackal Tales, The Adventures of the Jackal's Eldest Son, part 30: the jackal cheats the hyena, the lion, and the hedgehog» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 procure	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 procure	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 jackal	det
6	jackal	jackal	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 procure	nsubj
7	procure	procure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 butter	det
9	butter	butter	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 procure	obj
10	from	from	ADP	_	12 farmhouse	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 farmhouse	det
12	farmhouse	farmhouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 procure	obl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 procure	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present							vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	procure	past · do-support	the jackal	the butter		the farmhouse			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent butter=Theme from farmhouse=Source

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

By sending the hedgehog away and telling him lies about the jars

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 sending	mark
2	sending	send	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 lies	csubj
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 hedgehog	det
4	hedgehog	hedgehog	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sending	obj
5	away	away	ADV	_	2 sending	advmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 telling	cc
7	telling	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 sending	conj
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 telling	iobj
9	lies	lie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	about	about	ADP	_	12 jars	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 jars	det
12	jars	jar	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 lies	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	send away	gerund		the hedgehog		away property	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hedgehog=Theme
2	tell speech: assert	gerund			hedgehog		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient
3	lie	present	sending			about the jars	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent about jar=Location

Option 2

By breaking into the farmhouse at night through the window

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 breaking	mark
2	breaking	break	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	into	into	ADP	_	5 farmhouse	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 farmhouse	det
5	farmhouse	farmhouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 breaking	obl
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 night	case
7	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 breaking	obl
8	through	through	ADP	_	10 window	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 window	det
10	window	window	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 breaking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	break	gerund				the farmhouse	night	through the window	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through window=Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By deceiving the hedgehog

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 deceiving	mark
2	deceiving	deceive	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 hedgehog	det
4	hedgehog	hedgehog	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 deceiving	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deceive	gerund		the hedgehog					vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hedgehog=Patient

Option 4

By tricking the farmer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 tricking	mark
2	tricking	trick	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 farmer	det
4	farmer	farmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tricking	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	trick	gerund		the farmer					vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent farmer=Patient

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/1164-pg3027-part30/e4/