Exam question 3 · Fairy Book, The Old Woman and the Prince: a condemned yout…

State the reason the king gives for preferring the death of the prince to his public humiliation.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: State, prince, king · What happens: give, prefer, die, humiliate · To what, where: death

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1280 «Fairy Book, The Old Woman and the Prince: a condemned youth wins a strange marriage and proves he is the king's true son» 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	State	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gives	nsubj:outer
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gives	nsubj
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 king	det
5	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gives	nsubj
6	gives	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	8 preferring	mark
8	preferring	prefer	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 gives	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 death	det
10	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 preferring	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 prince	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 prince	det
13	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 death	nmod
14	to	to	ADP	_	17 humiliation	case
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 humiliation	nmod:poss
16	public	public	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 humiliation	amod
17	humiliation	humiliation	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 preferring	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 gives	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	give	present	State			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	prefer	gerund	State not said here	the death of the prince	to king's public humiliation	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer death=Stimulus
3	die		the prince			nom death «event intransitive»: of=agent
4	humiliate		king			nom humiliation «state 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

To be feared

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	3 feared	mark
2	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	3 feared	aux:pass
3	feared	fear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fear	to-infinitive · passive							vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»

Option 2

Honour demanded the boy's life, since the insult could not be borne quietly

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Honour	honour	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 demanded	nsubj
2	demanded	demand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 boy	det
4	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 life	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 boy	case
6	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 demanded	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 borne	punct
8	since	since	SCONJ	_	14 borne	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 insult	det
10	insult	insult	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 borne	nsubj:pass
11	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 borne	aux
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 borne	advmod
13	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	14 borne	aux:pass
14	borne	bear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 demanded	conj
15	quietly	quietly	ADV	_	14 borne	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	demand speech: request	past	Honour	the boy's life					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme life=Precondition
2	not bear	could · passive		the insult				quietly property	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He would rather the prince were dead than that the injury go unavenged

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	7 dead	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 dead	aux
3	rather	rather	ADV	_	7 dead	advmod
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 prince	det
5	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 dead	nsubj
6	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 dead	cop
7	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	than	than	SCONJ	_	12 go	mark
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	12 go	mark
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 injury	det
11	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 go	nsubj
12	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 dead	advcl
13	unavenged	unavenged	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 go	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	He					dead property	tree rules
2	go	infinitive	the injury					unavenged property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

He would not let the insult stand, so the prince must answer for it with his life

The tree, 17 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	4 let	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 let	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 let	advmod
4	let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 insult	det
6	insult	insult	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 let	obj
7	stand	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 let	xcomp
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 answer	punct
9	so	so	ADV	_	13 answer	advmod
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 prince	det
11	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 answer	nsubj
12	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 answer	aux
13	answer	answer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 let	conj
14	for	for	ADP	_	15 it	case
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 answer	obl
16	with	with	ADP	_	18 life	case
17	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 life	nmod:poss
18	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 answer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	not let	would	He	the insult		tree rules
2	stand	infinitive	the insult not said here			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	answer speech: assert	must	the prince		for insult; with prince's life	vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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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