Exam question 2 · pg3282, The Lion and the Wild Cat, part 47: the lion steal…

In what manner did the wild cat dispatch the bear and the snake?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: wild cat · What happens: dispatch · To what, where: bear, manner

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1246 «pg3282, The Lion and the Wild Cat, part 47: the lion steals the golden ball, and the old cat sees a copy of it» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 dispatch	obl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 dispatch	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 cat	det
6	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 cat	amod
7	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 dispatch	nsubj
8	dispatch	dispatch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 bear	det
10	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 dispatch	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 snake	cc
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 snake	det
13	snake	snake	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 bear	conj
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 dispatch	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dispatch	past · do-support	the wild cat	the bear and the snake		what manner			vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bear=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

By pushing each one from a high branch

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 pushing	mark
2	pushing	push	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	4 one	det
4	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pushing	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	8 branch	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 branch	det
7	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 branch	amod
8	branch	branch	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pushing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	push	gerund		each one		a high branch			vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent one=Theme from branch=Trajectory

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

By shouting at them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 shouting	mark
2	shouting	shout	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	at	at	ADP	_	4 them	case
4	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 shouting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shout speech: express	gerund						at them = they	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By uttering the word "die" to each in turn

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 uttering	mark
2	uttering	utter	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 word	det
4	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 uttering	obj
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 die	punct
6	die	die	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 word	appos
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 die	punct
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 each	case
9	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	2 uttering	obl
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 turn	case
11	turn	turn	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 uttering	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	utter speech: other	gerund		the word	each	turn			vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent word=Topic to each=Recipient

Option 4

By cursing them with a spell from afar

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 cursing	mark
2	cursing	curse	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 cursing	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 spell	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 spell	det
6	spell	spell	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cursing	obl
7	from	from	ADP	_	8 afar	case
8	afar	afar	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 spell	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	curse	gerund		them = they				with a spell from afar	vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

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/1246-pg3282-part47/e2/