Exam question 3 · The Brown Fairy Book, What the Rose did to the Cypress, pa…

According to the passage, what was the immediate cause of the death of the prince's horse?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: passage, horse · What happens: accord, be, die · To what, where: immediate cause

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1200 «The Brown Fairy Book, What the Rose did to the Cypress, part 1: a prince chases a deer, gets lost in the desert and meets a barefoot stranger who is a lost king» 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	According	accord	VERB	ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 passage	case
2	to	to	ADP	_	1 According	fixed
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 passage	det
4	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 cause	punct
6	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	10 cause	nsubj
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 cause	cop
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 cause	det
9	immediate	immediate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 cause	amod
10	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 passage	conj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 death	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 death	det
13	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 cause	nmod
14	of	of	ADP	_	18 horse	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 prince	det
16	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 horse	nmod:poss
17	's	's	PART	_	16 prince	case
18	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 death	nmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 passage	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	accord	gerund				vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	the passage and the immediate cause	the immediate cause	of the death of the prince's horse	tree rules
3	die		the prince's horse			nom death «event intransitive»: of=agent

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

a fall from a cliff in the hills

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 fall	det
2	fall	fall	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 cliff	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 cliff	det
5	cliff	cliff	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fall	nmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 hills	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 hills	det
8	hills	hill	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 fall	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

a poisoned spring that the horse drank from before the prince could stop it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 spring	det
2	poisoned	poison	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 spring	amod
3	spring	spring	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 stop	nsubj
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 drank	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 horse	det
6	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 drank	nsubj
7	drank	drink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 spring	acl
8	from	from	ADP	_	11 prince	case
9	before	before	ADP	_	11 prince	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 prince	det
11	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 drank	obl
12	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 stop	aux
13	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 stop	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	poison	participle				vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	drink	past	the horse	a poisoned spring not said here	from the prince	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spring=Patient
3	stop	could	a poisoned spring	horse		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality it=Eventuality

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

exhaustion and lack of water in the desert

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	exhaustion	exhaustion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 lack	cc
3	lack	lack	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 exhaustion	conj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 water	case
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lack	nmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 desert	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 desert	det
8	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 exhaustion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lack			water					nom lack «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

exhaustion and lack of water in the desert after days of hard riding

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	exhaustion	exhaustion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 lack	cc
3	lack	lack	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 exhaustion	conj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 water	case
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lack	nmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 desert	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 desert	det
8	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 exhaustion	nmod
9	after	after	ADP	_	10 days	case
10	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 desert	nmod
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 riding	case
12	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 riding	amod
13	riding	riding	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 days	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lack			water					nom lack «state transitive»: of=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/1200-pg3282-part1/e3/