Exam question 1 · Myths and Legends of China, The Shinansha, or the South Po…

Of what substance was the badger's vessel formed, and by what process did it fail?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: substance, process · What happens: be, form, fail · To what, where: vessel

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1349 «Myths and Legends of China, The Shinansha, or the South Pointing Carriage, part 9: Kotei beats the fog and crosses the river in boats made after a spider's leaf» 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	Of	of	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 formed	obl
3	substance	substance	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 vessel	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 vessel	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 badger	det
6	badger	badger	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 vessel	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 badger	case
8	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 what	acl:relcl
9	formed	form	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 fail	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 fail	cc
12	by	by	ADP	_	13 what	case
13	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	17 fail	obl
14	process	process	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 did	nsubj
15	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 fail	aux
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 fail	nsubj
17	fail	fail	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 formed	ccomp
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 formed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	past	substance	the badger's vessel	tree rules
2	form	past			tree rules
3	fail	past · do-support	process		vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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 · ✓ the right answer

clay, softened by water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	clay	clay	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 softened	punct
3	softened	soften	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 clay	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 water	case
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 softened	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	soften	participle		clay not said here				by water	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

stone, broken by water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 broken	compound
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 stone	punct
3	broken	break	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 water	case
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 broken	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	break	participle						by water	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by water=Location

Option 3

wood, softened by rain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 softened	punct
3	softened	soften	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 wood	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 rain	case
5	rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 softened	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	soften	participle		wood not said here				by rain	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

clay, hardened by the sun and then softened by the rain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	clay	clay	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 hardened	nsubj:pass
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 hardened	punct
3	hardened	harden	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 sun	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sun	det
6	sun	sun	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 hardened	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 softened	cc
8	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	9 softened	advmod
9	softened	soften	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 hardened	conj
10	by	by	ADP	_	12 rain	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 rain	det
12	rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 softened	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	harden	participle · passive	the sun	clay					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	soften	participle	the sun not said here				then	by the rain	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

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/1349-pg4018-part9/e1/