Exam question 2 · Old Indian Legends, Dance in a Buffalo Skull: mice feast u…

Which creatures does the narrator describe as remaining at a distance, unwilling to approach the fire?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: creatures · What happens: describe, remain, unwill, approach · To what, where: fire

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1272 «Old Indian Legends, Dance in a Buffalo Skull: mice feast until fiery eyes creep into their skull» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 creatures	det
2	creatures	creature	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 describe	nsubj
3	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 describe	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 narrator	det
5	narrator	narrator	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 describe	nsubj
6	describe	describe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	as	as	SCONJ	_	8 remaining	mark
8	remaining	remain	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 describe	advcl
9	at	at	ADP	_	11 distance	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 distance	det
11	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 remaining	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 unwilling	punct
13	unwilling	unwill	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 remaining	conj
14	to	to	PART	_	15 approach	mark
15	approach	approach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 unwilling	xcomp
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 fire	det
17	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 approach	obj
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 describe	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	describe	present · do-support	which creatures			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	remain	gerund	which creatures not said here		at a distance	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at distance=Location
3	unwill	gerund	which creatures not said here			tree rules
4	approach	to-infinitive	which creatures not said here	the fire		vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fire=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

The owls

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 owls	det
2	owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

The coyotes, sitting in the grass

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 coyotes	det
2	coyotes	coyote	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 sitting	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 sitting	punct
4	sitting	sit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 grass	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 grass	det
7	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sitting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sit	gerund	the coyotes			the grass			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in grass=Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The wolves, howling from afar

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wolves	det
2	wolves	wolf	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 howling	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 wolves	punct
4	howling	howl	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 afar	case
6	afar	afar	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 howling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	howl	gerund	the wolves			afar			vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The mice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 mice	det
2	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/1272-pg338-part9/e2/