Exam question 4 · Fairy Tales, Puss in Boots, part 34: the cat tricks the ki…

How did the cat's boots affect his movement on the tiles?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: boots, cat · What happens: be, affect, move · To what, where: movement, tiles

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1447 «Fairy Tales, Puss in Boots, part 34: the cat tricks the king and the ogre» 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	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	7 affect	advmod
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 How	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cat	det
4	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 boots	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 cat	case
6	boots	boot	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 affect	nsubj
7	affect	affect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 movement	nmod:poss
9	movement	movement	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 affect	obj
10	on	on	ADP	_	12 tiles	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 tiles	det
12	tiles	tile	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 affect	obl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 affect	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	past				how property	tree rules
2	affect	present	the cat's boots	cat's movement	the tiles		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus movement=Experiencer
3	move		cat				nom movement «act 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 · ← Mova's choice

They made his steps very slow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 made	nsubj
2	made	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 steps	nmod:poss
4	steps	step	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 made	obj
5	very	very	ADV	_	6 slow	advmod
6	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 made	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	past	They	his steps				slow property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset step=Product
2	step		his = he						nom step «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

They hindered his progress upon the slippery tiles of the castle roof

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 hindered	nsubj
2	hindered	hinder	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 progress	nmod:poss
4	progress	progress	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hindered	obj
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 tiles	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 tiles	det
7	slippery	slippery	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 tiles	amod
8	tiles	tile	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 hindered	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	12 roof	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 roof	det
11	castle	castle	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 roof	compound
12	roof	roof	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 tiles	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hinder	past	They	his progress				upon the slippery tiles of the castle roof	vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer progress=Eventuality
2	progress		his = he						nom progress «act intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

They slowed his walk on tiles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 slowed	nsubj
2	slowed	slow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 walk	nmod:poss
4	walk	walk	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 slowed	obj
5	on	on	ADP	_	6 tiles	case
6	tiles	tile	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 slowed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	slow	past	They	his walk		tiles			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent walk=Patient
2	walk		his = he						nom walk «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They hindered his progress upon the tiles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 hindered	nsubj
2	hindered	hinder	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 progress	nmod:poss
4	progress	progress	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hindered	obj
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 tiles	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 tiles	det
7	tiles	tile	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 hindered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hinder	past	They	his progress				upon the tiles	vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer progress=Eventuality
2	progress		his = he						nom progress «act intransitive»: poss=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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