Exam question 3 · Lang's Fairy Book, How the Little Brother Set Free His Big…

Explain why the elder brother failed to observe the mountain as he entered it, citing the circumstances of the chase.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, elder brother, brother · What happens: explain, fail, not observe, enter, cite · To what, where: mountain, circumstances · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1222 «Lang's Fairy Book, How the Little Brother Set Free His Big Brothers, part 2: the bear chief's servant lures the hunters into the mountain» 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	Explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	6 failed	advmod
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 brother	det
4	elder	elder	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 brother	amod
5	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 failed	nsubj
6	failed	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Explain	ccomp
7	to	to	PART	_	8 observe	mark
8	observe	observe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 failed	xcomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 mountain	det
10	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 observe	obj
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 entered	mark
12	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 entered	nsubj
13	entered	enter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 observe	advcl
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 entered	obj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 citing	punct
16	citing	cite	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 entered	advcl
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 circumstances	det
18	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 citing	obj
19	of	of	ADP	_	21 chase	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 chase	det
21	chase	chase	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 circumstances	nmod
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	imperative	you not said here		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	fail	past	the elder brother		vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	not observe	to-infinitive	the elder brother not said here	the mountain	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent mountain=Topic
4	enter	past	brother	mountain	vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Destination
5	cite	gerund	brother not said here	the circumstances of the chase	vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent circumstance=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

He was intent upon the pursuit of the bear through brush and bramble that tore at his cloak all morning

The tree, 20 words

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 intent	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 intent	cop
3	intent	intent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 pursuit	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 pursuit	det
6	pursuit	pursuit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 intent	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 bear	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 bear	det
9	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 pursuit	nmod
10	through	through	ADP	_	11 brush	case
11	brush	brush	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 intent	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 bramble	cc
13	bramble	bramble	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 brush	conj
14	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 tore	nsubj
15	tore	tore	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 brush	acl:relcl
16	at	at	ADP	_	18 cloak	case
17	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 cloak	nmod:poss
18	cloak	cloak	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 tore	obl
19	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	20 morning	det
20	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 tore	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	He		brush and bramble		upon the pursuit of the bear; intent property	tree rules
2	tore	past	brush and bramble		his cloak	morning		tree rules
3	pursue			the bear				nom pursuit «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

He was so intent upon the pursuit of the bear that he never looked up at the cliffs or the entrance

The tree, 21 words

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	4 intent	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 intent	cop
3	so	so	ADV	_	4 intent	advmod
4	intent	intent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 pursuit	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 pursuit	det
7	pursuit	pursuit	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 intent	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 bear	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 bear	det
10	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 pursuit	nmod
11	that	that	SCONJ	_	14 looked	mark
12	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 looked	nsubj
13	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	14 looked	advmod
14	looked	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 intent	advcl
15	up	up	ADP	_	14 looked	compound:prt
16	at	at	ADP	_	18 cliffs	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 cliffs	det
18	cliffs	cliff	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 looked	obl
19	or	or	CCONJ	_	21 entrance	cc
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 entrance	det
21	entrance	entrance	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 cliffs	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	He		upon the pursuit of the bear; intent property	tree rules
2	not look up	past	he		at the cliffs or the entrance	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at cliff=Theme
3	pursue			the bear		nom pursuit «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He was intent upon the pursuit of the bear

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 intent	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 intent	cop
3	intent	intent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 pursuit	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 pursuit	det
6	pursuit	pursuit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 intent	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 bear	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 bear	det
9	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 pursuit	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	He					upon the pursuit of the bear; intent property	tree rules
2	pursue			the bear					nom pursuit «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

He had his eyes on the trail

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 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 eyes	nmod:poss
4	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 had	obj
5	on	on	ADP	_	7 trail	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 trail	det
7	trail	trail	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 had	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	He	his eyes		the trail			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=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/1222-pg3282-part23/e3/