Exam question 1 · Lang Fairy Tales, The Knights of the Fish, part 1: a magic…

Which of the following describes the cobbler's first action upon receiving the fish's instructions?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: first action, fish · What happens: follow, be, receive, instruct · To what, where: instructions

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1262 «Lang Fairy Tales, The Knights of the Fish, part 1: a magic fish gives a poor cobbler two sons who go looking for adventure» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 action	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	10 action	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 action	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 action	case
5	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 action	cop
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 cobbler	det
7	cobbler	cobbler	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 action	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 cobbler	case
9	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	10 action	amod
10	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
11	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	12 receiving	mark
12	receiving	receive	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 action	acl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 fish	det
14	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 instructions	nmod:poss
15	's	's	PART	_	14 fish	case
16	instructions	instruction	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 receiving	obj
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	10 action	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is	present			of the cobbler's first action	tree rules
3	receive	gerund	the cobbler's first action not said here	the fish's instructions		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent instruction=Theme
4	instruct		the fish			nom instruction «communication transitive»: 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

He asked the fish for more advice before deciding anything

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 asked	nsubj
2	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 fish	det
4	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 asked	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 advice	case
6	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	7 advice	amod
7	advice	advice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 asked	obl
8	before	before	SCONJ	_	9 deciding	mark
9	deciding	decide	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 asked	advcl
10	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	9 deciding	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	He		the fish			for more advice	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent fish=Recipient
2	decide	gerund	He not said here	anything					vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent anything=Topic

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

He immediately went home and carefully began preparing the fish exactly as it had instructed him to do, without questioning anything at all

The tree, 23 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 went	nsubj
2	immediately	immediately	ADV	_	3 went	advmod
3	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	home	home	ADV	_	3 went	advmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 began	cc
6	carefully	carefully	ADV	_	7 began	advmod
7	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 went	conj
8	preparing	prepare	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 began	xcomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 fish	det
10	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 preparing	obj
11	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	15 instructed	advmod
12	as	as	SCONJ	_	15 instructed	mark
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 instructed	nsubj:pass
14	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 instructed	aux
15	instructed	instruct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 preparing	advcl
16	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 instructed	obj
17	to	to	PART	_	18 do	mark
18	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 instructed	xcomp
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 questioning	punct
20	without	without	SCONJ	_	21 questioning	mark
21	questioning	question	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 began	advcl
22	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	21 questioning	obj
23	at	at	ADP	_	24 all	case
24	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	22 anything	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	go	past	He			home, immediately property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	begin	past	He not said here			carefully property	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	prepare	gerund	He not said here	the fish			vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Patient
4	instruct speech: other	past · perfect · passive		it		exactly property	tree rules
5	do	to-infinitive					vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
6	question speech: other	gerund	He not said here	anything	all		vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Recipient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He obeyed the instructions and prepared the fish as directed

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 obeyed	nsubj
2	obeyed	obey	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 instructions	det
4	instructions	instruction	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 obeyed	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 prepared	cc
6	prepared	prepare	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 obeyed	conj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 fish	det
8	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 prepared	obj
9	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 directed	mark
10	directed	direct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 prepared	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	obey	past	He	the instructions	vn abide_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent instruction=Theme
2	prepare	past	He not said here	the fish	vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Patient
3	direct	participle	He not said here		vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

He ignored the fish entirely

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 ignored	nsubj
2	ignored	ignore	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 fish	det
4	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ignored	obj
5	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	2 ignored	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ignore	past	He	the fish				entirely property	vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=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/1262-pg3282-part63/e1/