Exam question 1 · Norse Tales, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, part 29…

By what method did the Prince subdue the fire-breathing horse upon the mountain-side?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: method, Prince · What happens: do, subdue, breathe · To what, where: breathing horse

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1442 «Norse Tales, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, part 29: the Prince learns tricks from the Master-maid and tames the fire horse» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
3	method	method	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	nsubj
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Prince	det
6	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 subdue	nsubj
7	subdue	subdue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 horse	det
9	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 breathing	compound
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 fire	punct
11	breathing	breathe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 horse	amod
12	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 subdue	obj
13	upon	upon	ADP	_	17 side	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 side	det
15	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 side	compound
16	-	-	PUNCT	_	15 mountain	punct
17	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 subdue	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 what	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	past	method			vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	subdue	present	the Prince	the breathing horse	upon the mountain side	vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Patient
3	breathe	gerund				vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «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

by thrusting the bridle straight over its ears

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 thrusting	mark
2	thrusting	thrust	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 bridle	det
4	bridle	bridle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 thrusting	obj
5	straight	straight	ADV	_	8 ears	advmod
6	over	over	ADP	_	8 ears	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 ears	nmod:poss
8	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 thrusting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	thrust	gerund		the bridle		bridle's ears			vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bridle=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

by tying its legs with rope

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 tying	mark
2	tying	tie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 legs	nmod:poss
4	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 tying	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 rope	case
6	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tie	gerund		its legs				with rope	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent leg=Patient with rope=Co-Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

by thrusting the bit straight into its jaws

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 thrusting	mark
2	thrusting	thrust	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 bit	det
4	bit	bit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 thrusting	obj
5	straight	straight	ADV	_	8 jaws	advmod
6	into	into	ADP	_	8 jaws	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 jaws	nmod:poss
8	jaws	jaw	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 thrusting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	thrust	gerund		the bit		bit's jaws			vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bit=Theme

Option 4

by pushing the bridle over its head

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 pushing	mark
2	pushing	push	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 bridle	det
4	bridle	bridle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pushing	obj
5	over	over	ADP	_	7 head	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 head	nmod:poss
7	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pushing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	push	gerund		the bridle		bridle's head			vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent bridle=Theme over head=Trajectory

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/1442-pg503-part29/e1/