Exam question 2 · Indian Fairy Tales, Puruna, part 54: the king's hunt and t…

Identify the means by which the hermit professed to determine the fates of men.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, the, hermit · What happens: identify, mean, profess, determine, fate · To what, where: fates, men · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1253 «Indian Fairy Tales, Puruna, part 54: the king's hunt and the hermit's prophecy» 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	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	ccomp
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 professed	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 hermit	det
7	hermit	hermit	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 professed	nsubj
8	professed	profess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
9	to	to	PART	_	10 determine	mark
10	determine	determine	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 professed	xcomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 fates	det
12	fates	fate	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 determine	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 men	case
14	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 fates	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	mean	present	the		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	profess	past	the hermit		vn declare-29.4-1-1-2 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
4	determine	to-infinitive	the hermit not said here	the fates of men	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fate=Topic
5	fate			men	nom fate «event transitive»: of=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 · ← Mova's choice

by throwing dry leaves into a stream and watching them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 throwing	mark
2	throwing	throw	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 leaves	amod
4	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 throwing	obj
5	into	into	ADP	_	7 stream	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 stream	det
7	stream	stream	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 throwing	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 watching	cc
9	watching	watch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 throwing	conj
10	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 watching	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	throw	gerund		dry leaves				into a stream result	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer leaf=Theme into stream=Result
2	watch	gerund		leaves = leaf					vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

Option 2

by casting dry leaves into a fast river and reading how they float

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 casting	mark
2	casting	cast	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 leaves	amod
4	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 casting	obj
5	into	into	ADP	_	8 river	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 river	det
7	fast	fast	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 river	amod
8	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 casting	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 reading	cc
10	reading	read	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 casting	conj
11	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	13 float	advmod
12	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 float	nsubj
13	float	float	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 reading	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	cast	gerund		dry leaves	a fast river	vn build-26.1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent leaf=Material into river=Product
2	read	gerund				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	float	present	leaves = leaf			vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

by throwing leaves into a stream

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 throwing	mark
2	throwing	throw	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 throwing	obj
4	into	into	ADP	_	6 stream	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 stream	det
6	stream	stream	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 throwing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	throw	gerund		leaves				into a stream result	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer leaf=Theme into stream=Result

Option 4

by reading the palm of hands

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 reading	mark
2	reading	read	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 palm	det
4	palm	palm	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reading	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 hands	case
6	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 palm	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	read	gerund		the palm of hands					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent palm=Topic

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/1253-pg3282-part54/e2/