Exam question 2 · Orange Fairy Book, Moti: Moti rides to war on a wobbly pon…

Which action by Moti caused his pony to bolt?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: action, Moti · What happens: cause, bolt, act · To what, where: pony

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1301 «Orange Fairy Book, Moti: Moti rides to war on a wobbly pony and frightens a king into surrender.» 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 action	det
2	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 caused	nsubj
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 Moti	case
4	Moti	Moti	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 action	nmod
5	caused	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 pony	nmod:poss
7	pony	pony	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 caused	obj
8	to	to	PART	_	9 bolt	mark
9	bolt	bolt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 pony	acl
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 caused	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	cause	past	which action by Moti	action's pony	vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition pony=Patient
2	bolt	to-infinitive	which action by Moti not said here	action's pony not said here	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	act		Moti		nom action «act intransitive»: by=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

Striking it firmly across the back with his wooden staff

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Striking	strike	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Striking	obj
3	firmly	firmly	ADV	_	1 Striking	advmod
4	across	across	ADP	_	6 back	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 back	det
6	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Striking	obl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 staff	case
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 staff	nmod:poss
9	wooden	wooden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 staff	amod
10	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Striking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	gerund		it		the back		with his wooden staff; firmly property	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with staff=Instrument

Option 2

Pulling hard on the reins

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Pulling	pull	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	1 Pulling	advmod
3	on	on	ADP	_	5 reins	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reins	det
5	reins	rein	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Pulling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull	gerund						on the reins; hard property	vn push-12-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent on rein=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Striking it forcefully with his staff

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Striking	strike	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Striking	obj
3	forcefully	forcefully	ADV	_	1 Striking	advmod
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 staff	case
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 staff	nmod:poss
6	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Striking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	gerund		it				with his staff; forcefully property	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with staff=Instrument

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Shouting at it and then striking it hard with his heavy staff

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shouting	shout	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	3 it	case
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Shouting	obl
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 striking	cc
5	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	6 striking	advmod
6	striking	strike	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Shouting	conj
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 striking	obj
8	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 striking	advmod
9	with	with	ADP	_	12 staff	case
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 staff	nmod:poss
11	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 staff	amod
12	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 striking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shout speech: express	gerund				it			vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	strike	gerund		it			then	with his heavy staff; hard property	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with staff=Instrument

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/1301-pg3454-part26/e2/