Exam question 3 · Fairy Tales, The Turnip Princess, part 52: the maidens wit…

Identify the principal cause of the maidens' decline as stated in the narrative.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, maidens · What happens: identify, state, cause, decline · To what, where: principal cause, narrative, decline

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1251 «Fairy Tales, The Turnip Princess, part 52: the maidens wither, and the gnome's fresh turnips go missing» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	9 decline	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 maidens	det
7	maidens	maiden	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 decline	nmod:poss
8	'	's	PART	_	7 maidens	case
9	decline	decline	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
10	as	as	SCONJ	_	11 stated	mark
11	stated	state	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	advcl
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 narrative	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 narrative	det
14	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 stated	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the maidens's decline		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	state speech: other	participle	you not said here		the narrative	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	cause			the maidens's decline		nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient
4	decline		the maidens			nom decline «process intransitive»: poss=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 · ← Mova's choice

The garden wells ran dry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 wells	det
2	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wells	compound
3	wells	well	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 ran	nsubj
4	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 ran	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run	past	the garden wells					dry property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

The river froze over hard

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 river	det
2	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 froze	nsubj
3	froze	freeze	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	over	over	ADV	_	5 hard	advmod
5	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	3 froze	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	freeze over	past	the river					hard property	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3

The goblins drank the sap from the roots every night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 goblins	det
2	goblins	goblin	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 drank	nsubj
3	drank	drink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sap	det
5	sap	SAP	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drank	obj
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 roots	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 roots	det
8	roots	root	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 drank	obl
9	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	10 night	det
10	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drank	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drink	past	the goblins	the sap		the roots	night		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sap=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The sap in the roots dried up

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sap	det
2	sap	SAP	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 roots	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 roots	det
5	roots	root	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 sap	nmod
6	dried	dry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 roots	acl
7	up	up	ADP	_	6 dried	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dry up	participle		the roots not said here					vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=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.

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